Category: Kuwait

Today at lunch time I collected my gift, a brand new Microsoft wireless notebook optical mouse. I won it from Fadibou, the Microsoft guru 2 days ago because I told him I loved the Xbox. This mouse turned out to be a lot smaller and practical then I thought. You don’t need drivers or anything to start using it and works with Macs and PCs. There is a small USB receiver which you plugin to an empty USB slot and you are ready to start using the mouse. When you want to put the mouse away, the small USB receiver snaps onto the underside of the mouse! Although the mouse is tiny it fits very snugly into my large hands because of the way the mouse is shaped. It also uses just 1 AA sized battery which provides it with enough juice for over 3 months of use.

To get more information or to purchase the mouse for $34 click here (Amazon.com).

I just got back from watching Star Wars at Fanar. I went with Nat, Fadibou, Missundaztoood, Tivo Guy and Calmness. Fanar is definitely a much better movie theater then Marina. The sound was great and the theater much larger, the whole experience was much better then my marina one. The company I was with was also great, we booked the tickets from KNCC.com earlier in the day so we were able to get excellent seats next to each other. Even if we hadn’t booked beforehand I dont think we would have had a problem getting decent seats, the theater was basically empty, not a lot of Star Wars fans in Kuwait it seems. Thinking about the movie now, I think it was actually pretty good, specially if you look at it from episode 1 all the way to 6. Lucas managed to merge them all together very smoothly.

I can’t wait till they come out with the Star Wars Sixology DVD set, that would be amazing..

Me and Tivo-Guy both hate making decisions on where to have lunch. Our conversations always end up with “you choose” “no you choose”. So, we came up with a solution, create an online software that would decide for us where we would have lunch today.

Tivo-Guy went and created a custom online software in which he added in all our choices for lunch. Now, whenever we want to go have lunch, one of us would click the button on his website and the software decides for us where we will have lunch. The software then sends both of us an SMS with the answer (today its pizza hut).

I would share the website with you guys but then you would probably keep clicking the button and we would keep getting SMS messages non stop through out the day. But I took a picture of “the button” and I attached it to this post 🙂

The InKuwait.com websites provide information about living in Kuwait plus activities and events for its citizens. If you know more of these websites leave a comment of the URL and I will add it to the list.

www.LebaneseInKuwait.com
www.CanadiansInKuwait.com
www.IndiansInKuwait.com

Yup, this is Nibaq with his PSP!
Thats big enough proof that the DS will die..

Remember when you were kids in school and if you did something good the teacher would give you a star? Well I am starting this trend at the agency. I am giving out pink and blue stars of various sizes to designers who work hard. The harder you work the bigger the star you get. Really funny stuff.. I think this should be applied to all of our offices worldwide. I also think I am gonna get fired when management comes back from their trip!

I am selling my car because I want to get a new one.
Here are the car specs:

Year: 2001
Brand: BMW
Model: 330ci
Color: Topaz Blue
Interior: Individual

Extras:
-Rear Shade -Sport Package -Seat Warmers -Xennon Lights -17″ rims -Business CD -Chrome Trim Exterior -Alluminium Trim Interior -Clear Signal Lights -Motorolla V3690 GSM phone ready

It has 69,000KM on the dial, if interested leave a comment and I will contact you.

More information and pictures of the car available here.

Update: I think someone from the office is going to buy it off me…

Just came back from a blogger meetup. It wasn’t planned as one but it turned into one. I had lunch with Tivo-Guy, Missundaztoood and Fadibou at Starbucks in Salhiya. The meetup was very cool, we mostly sat and talked about the PSP and Halo2, and Fadi was telling us about how Microsoft Longhorn will kick ass when it comes out in 2015. Compared to the planned “official” meetups, I think our unplanned one faired out evenly even-though we didn’t have an invisible celebrity guest!

We have 2 PSP’s at the office, a Japanese version and an American version. We have 2 copies of Need for Speed, a Jap version and a US version. The problem is we can’t get the two systems to connect for a head to head race! Wtf?! I thought we would be able to do this even though we have two PSP’s from different regions.

Have you guys noticed the Swensens ads on the streets? If you will look carefully you will see a small quote that says “Ice cream will never melt”. Just thought that was a pretty stupid statement..

As you know the other day I was contacted by Kuwait Cinema regarding my terrible movie experience. Well after the last phonecall where a guy from Kuwait Cinema wanted me to call him before I went to the movies so he could get me the free tickets, I sent another email to the general manager explaining how this wasn’t very convenient for me and he replied. Below I posted the email I sent to the GM and the email he sent back:

Mark to Alan

hi thank you Alan for your email and phone call. Its good to know that KNCC does care about their customers even though they have a monopoly on the market.

I do have 1 more minor issue though. Santhosh called me and told me about my 2 free tickets. He was very nice and all and told me to call before I go to the movies next time so that he can get me the tickets. I was wondering would you be able to credit the 2 tickets into my account instead of me having to call santhosh the next time I go. The reason for this is I would like to choose the seats myself and calling santhosh for the tickets and hoping he answers just before i go to the movies is a bit of a hassel.

If its not possible its ok.

thanks

And this is the email I just received from the general manager today:

Alan to Me

Mark

I have arranged for this to be done. We do care, very much, as to what our customers feel and experience.

Please let me know what your next movie is like.

Alan

As you can see he was very proffesional. I am now 100% satisfied with their actions regarding the incident.

ALL the management at my agency are leaving tonight for a three day seminar in Dubai. What does this mean? It means I will be in charge of the creative department for the next three days so I created a schedule of things to do for all of us here.

Day 1 – We all ditch work and go to the beach. This way by the time management come back on Thursday, everyones tan would have settled.

Day 2 – We all ditch and go to Entertainment City. Many of the employees here haven’t been to Entertainment City yet so it would be a good experience for them.

Day 3 – We go Ice Skating at the skating arena near the office. This way we can go skate for an hour and be back to the office to catch up on some work before management come back Thursday.

Day 4 – Management come back, find out what I did and then fire me.

I was checking out Missundaztoood’s website and saw his her Only in Kuwait list. I found the list funny and it reminded me of an incident I witnessed recently. Me and Nat were walking in Salmiya around 2 weeks ago when we spotted this car with a lady in it outside a shoestore. She honked the horn and the salesman came out. She told him something and he went back into the shop and came out 2 mintues later with 2 pairs of shoes. She tried them on in the car and then gave them back to the guy and drove down a few meters to another shop and honked again.

The lady was drive by shoe shopping, I had never seen that before!

Today I received two phone calls in regard to my complaint about the StarWars incident I had last week. The first call was from Alan Hall, the General Manager of KNCC. He apologized about the incident and told me they would investigate it. When I asked him if they had received any other complaints he told me no they hadn’t but that they also generally never receive any feedback from anyone, good or bad. He then told me they would contact me again soon.

Around 5 minutes ago I received a call from another guy, he again apologized for the incident and gave me his number and told me the next time I go to the movies to give him a call 1 hour ahead so I can get free tickets. He wasn’t very clear on the issue so I asked him if I brought my wife can I get 2 tickets, he said yes. I said thank you and closed the phone.

The free tickets gesture is nice of them but I don’t think its good enough. I am not being greedy or anything but there are a couple of issues here.

1) I already paid for 2 tickets last time and wasted my time going to the movies at midnight on a work day to watch the movie and they fucked up. If they give me 2 free tickets in return then I am not getting anything extra.

2) Do I get 2 tickets or more? I asked the guy if I need 2 tickets for me and my wife would that be a problem, he said no. What if I need tickets for me and my friends? The guy wasn’t very clear on this issue.

3) I have to call the guy before I go to the movies? Would he remember me? When is this valid till? What if he doesnt pick up? I think calling a person on his mobile before I go to the movies is to much of a hassel and I wouldn’t be in control. Plus do I still book the tickets online or do I tell the guy what movie I want and he books the seats and buys them for me?

4) I booked the tickets and paid for them online, why couldn’t they credit my account with the free tickets? That would have solved a couple of issues. First I would know the exact amount of tickets I got. Secondly I can book my tickets online whenever I want and pay for them with the credit I have.

In conclusion, I am glad they called me back but I am disappointed with their gift.

Update: I just called the guy again to get clarification on the booking issue. Turns out I have to tell him what movie I want and he will book the seats and get me the tickets. I should have asked him how many tickets I get but I forgot..

Update 2: Just received the email below from Alan, very nice of him:

Mark

I refer to our discussion of this morning and thank you very much for providing the feedback. We are in the process of a major investigation as to why this happened. We do not take such matters lightly.

As a gesture I would love to welcome you and your wife back to enjoy a screening of Star Wars, with sound, at your convenience.

Santhosh, our operations manager will be contacting you to co-ordinate.

Kind regards.

Alan Hall
General Manager

This is what I have heard from various sources:

– Al-Shaya are going to close all their shops at Souk Sharq and move to the new 5th Avenue mall opening on the 5th ring road

– Blue Fig is closing down because its not doing good

– Al-Shaya purchased Blue Fig’s location and are opening 3 new restaurants in its place, one of which will be Le Pain Quotidien