Category: Kuwait

Yesterday I went down to Rihab Complex in Hawalli to my favorite videogames store. When I first walked in I noticed something different but I couldn’t figure out what. So I shook hands with the owner, and I told him I wanted Doom 3. He took out a piece of paper, wrote down Doom 3 on it and gave it to an Indian employee at the store. The Indian guy took the paper and left the shop to get me the game. I was like huh!? Usually I ask for a game and he gets it for me from a box behind the counter. Then it hit me, I looked around the shop and noticed there wasn’t a single pirated game anywhere. Thats what looked different, the shop looked emptier. So I asked the guy what happened, turns out the municipality has been giving them a hard time and are cracking down on them every week. So now they are being extra careful and all the games and stuff are hidden in another shop.

I took my game and left to another shop elsewhere in Hawalli where me and Nat wanted to get some DVDs. So we walk into the shop we usually buy DVDs from and there are no catalogues to be found. The only thing you could find in the shop was computer power cords hanging on one wall. At first glance you would think this store only sold power cords, but I asked the guy what no more DVDs? He is like yes sir one minute. He went outside the shop and came back in with a small box full of catalogues. Turns out the municipality has only been giving them a hard time.

I hope piracy doesn’t end in Kuwait. Some games are worth buying original but other games, games you would only play once or twice are not worth KD18.

I got Doom3 yesterday on the Xbox and it was the first time I had seen it live. All I had seen before were static images on the web and after yesterday, I don’t think I will be playing Doom3 again. Its just so fucking scary. I would be like walking in the dark with my tiny flashlight when suddenly the ugliest creature you could imagine jumps out of no where and starts biting me. Then I panic and start hitting it with my flashlight instead of my shotgun. Spent the whole first level running as fast as I can hoping incase a creature does pop out that my guy is physically fitter and will be able to outrun it.

I got a phone call from Osoul yesterday night. No it wasn’t because I wrote about their logo but it was because of another issue. Last year my best friend purchased some electronics and bought them using Osoul financing. A few months later my best friend leaves to Lebanon and passes away there. So naturally he can’t pay back the installments anymore because he is dead. Osoul don’t get that. I get a phone call from them at-least once a month asking me about my best friend and reminding me that he hasn’t paid the installments. It could be someone from Osoul, a lawyer, a collection office, all different people calling me and telling me the same crap over and over and every-time I have to tell them all that my best friend is dead.

So yesterdays call was the worst. A guy calls me up and asks me if I am mark, I am like yes, he was like your friend owes us some money and he has your name and number down as a reference (note: i wasn’t my friends guarantor). I was like yeah I know, you guys keep calling me and I keep telling you my friend is dead, he past away last August. The guy was like then send me his death certificate. I was like what the fuck?? No fucking way, I don’t have to send you anything, and stop fucking calling my number. He is like well he owes us money so you need to find a way to pay us back. I was like no I don’t, I don’t have to do anything for you, I am not a guarantor or anything. He was like yes but we have your number. I was like listen you fuck, I am not going to send you anything or do anything for you, don’t fucking call me again and I hung up the phone.

Unfucking believable how some people are. Till when will this go on? Will they ever stop calling me?

I just found the coolest website, something I didn’t know existed in Kuwait. The site is actually a car talk forum but based in Kuwait. The members there discuss their latest car upgrades, or a recent car they spotted or which car they raced on what street. Its amazing stuff. Here are some examples of the topics they are discussing:

A8 Quattro Killed moi….. was worth it..
DB9 spotted (with pics)
Driftmaster accident (wallah maa testahel)
HaSsOnY Car Accident!! Gulf Road
SLR in Q8 (with pics)

There are tons more interesting topics and sections for all street racers or car modifiers in Kuwait. Very very interesting stuff and all this is in Kuwait! The website is Q8speed.com. The picture above of the Lamborgini’s is from a Q8 Speed gathering at AUK.

Someone at the office just got me the KDD space shuttle icecream called Columbia (yeah after the space shuttle Columbia that blew up). I hadn’t had it since I was a kid and so it was nice to have it again. I was trying to figure out what it tasted like though and I couldn’t figure it out. So I checked the ingredients and there was something called Boysenberry. That sounded a bit fishy, Boysenberry, Poisonberry… notice the similarities? So I did a quick search and it turns out Boysenberry is an actual fruit, who would have thought!

A boysenberry is a cross among a blackberry, red raspberry and loganberry. It was created by Rudolph Boysen, and first commercially cultivated by Walter Knott.

So now I know what Boysenberry is, I still don’t know how KDD could call an icecream after a Space Shuttle disaster.. [Link]

I just witnessed the strangest thing. There is a new pigeon on the ledge outside my window and he seems like a tough guy. The first thing that grabbed my attention was his hairy feet, like really hairy. Didn’t know pigeons good have hair on their feet yet alone this much. So I was was starring at the pigeons feet thinking what name to give him, when suddenly he started chasing this pigeon. They were both running outside and the hairy feet pigeon was trying to peck the other pigeon with his beak. Finally the second pigeon flew away. Hairy pigeon then proceeded to chase another pigeon! This fucker like chased 6 other pigeons off the ledge until he was the only one standing there. THEN, if that wasn’t enough, their were 2 pigeons sleeping below the ledge, the guy jumped them both! In the end he was the only pigeon left. So I decided to give him the name Zaeem which means chief in arabic. Then when everything went quiet, a super pigeon appeared. This other pigeon which I decided to give the name Rambo started chasing Zaeem. He wasn’t able to make Zaeem fly off but he was able to chase him till he ended up at the far end of the ledge. Now every-time Zaeem comes close to the other pigeons near my window, Rambo chases him back to the far end of the ledge. It’s really fun watching all this. Makes you wonder whats going on in their minds. I also decided to call the toeless pigeon Tobby.

Here is a picture of Zaeem with his hairy feet

At the office I am on a 512kb Fasttelco connection. At home I am on a 512kb Qualitynet connection. I ran a bandwidth test at both locations and the following were the results:

Qualitynet
Communications: 475.4 kilobits per second
Storage: 58 kilobytes per second
1MB file download: 17.6 seconds
Subjective rating: Not Bad

Fasttelco
Communications 362.5 kilobits per second
Storage: 44.3 kilobytes per second
1MB file download: 23.1 seconds
Subjective rating: Not Bad

In both trials, no one but me was using the connection on the network.

Winner of Round 1: Qualitynet

If you remember last month I posted about the new terrible BKME logo. Well since then I heard that the logo was done by an international agency (hard to believe) and I heard another story that it was designed by Horizon here in Kuwait (more believable). Yesterday I also got an email from someone called Jeeb, this is what he had to say about BKME and the logo:

The sphere isn’t only about a pearl, a BKME personnel indicated to me that two pepole reaching each other are actualy represented inside! I said who in the world would know or see that? By the way when copied, the “pearl” or “human reaching each other” logo goes white! Vanishes..

It also took me 2 days to open an account! Still confused, I received 6 e-mails with 6 user numbers bkmeonline/e-trading, which one to use? Why the guy kept telling “use another username this one is giving an error”? Now, ofcourse, i can’t use any of them, each had a password which i don’t remember now!! Bmke didn’t reply, i have to waite till sunday. Talking about making “life simple” for us!!!

I drew with a red line what “might” be 2 guys, one seems very fat. Also I can understand about the terrible service, when I tried calling them to ask about the logo 2 weeks ago it took me all morning to get a hold of someone..

I spent all night listening to the British Radio One in my car. Whenever there is a dust storm or humidity in Kuwait my car gets the Radio One signal on 102.1Mhz. I think its broadcasted from UAE or Bahrain. Tonight I was listening to the Ministry of Sound session, some really cool stuff.. for the radio atleast.

I saw this new burger yesterday and I forgot to post about it but Forzaq8 just posted about it and he even took pictures. Their new burger is carb free which means no bread. The burger is wrapped in lettuce. When I was asking the guy at hardees about it (i was picking up a cookie) he was giggling while explaining it to me. They don’t even know what the hell it is. Its like a deformed burger. Anyway check forza’s post for the pictures. Totally looks like something I do not even want to try!

Yesterday night me and nat watched Office Space which tivo had recorded earlier in the week. I already have watched the movie atleast half a dozen times but its a classic and always worth watching again. But, this was the first time I watched it censored! I can’t believe how badly one tv sucks! The words fuck and shit are censored, there is a whole “PC Load Letter” scene in the movie which was cut short, there is a completely missing scene in the movie where the Michael Bolton guy is listening to rap, there is a cancer tits ad missing scene, there is just so much cut out that the movie wasn’t worth watching anymore. They completely slaughtered what has to be one of the coolest movies of all time. In the end I just couldn’t handle it, we deleted the movie off the Tivo and watched something else. The only good thing about One TV is The Contender. I don’t know how they got the rights for Sopranos..

There is this one pigeon I keep seeing outside my window which doesnt seem to have any toes. I don’t know what happened to them but its pretty fucking sad watching him all day long. He seems to be getting along fine with all the other pigeons, they don’t seem to be leaving him out of any of their activities but I know deep inside this pigeon wishes he had all his toes. He seems to be able to walk fine but every few seconds he tries to stand on just 1 leg, I guess cuz it might be his other leg hurts him or something. Anyway I took pictures for you guys to see.

Birdie Pic 1
Birdie Pic 2 (warning: not for pigeon lovers)

I finally have internet at home. It feels soo good to finally have decent internet at home. First thing I did was go to Bandwidthplace.com and make sure I was receiving the bandwidth I was paying for. As expected it registered at 58 kilobytes per second. Second thing I did was run Quake 3, its the only game I ever play online and the latency measured at 164 which is 4 times better then what I was getting with shownet. This will make playing online games with my PSP a breeze. If I have any problems with Qualitynet I will definitely post them here. For now though they seem fantastic.

This is just a preview of what might end up being on Miskan tonight. On my way back from a meeting with a client I witnessed a police SUV run a car off the road. They seemed very pissed at the driver. Ofcourse I had my camera with me and I took pictures. If nothing better comes along I will use one of those pictures for my picture of the day.

Just got a call from 808888. It was qualitynet, they just wanted to call and tell me that my account has been activated and that if I ever needed anything that I could call support on 804444 anytime 24 hours a day.

So far I like the service!