Categories
Personal Photography

The GX1 is here

I finally got my GX1 camera. I originally ordered it at the beginning of December but the camera with the specific lens I wanted started shipping end of January and Aramex just dropped it off to my office earlier today. The GX1 is a replacement for my Panasonic GF1 which was (and still is) one of the most enjoyable cameras I’ve ever used. So far the GX1 seems exactly like the GF1 except better although it’s still too early to get a first impression. I’ll be posting my view on it after using it for awhile.

I ordered the Panasonic GX1 with the 14-42mm x power lens from [Amazon]




Categories
Personal Travel

Heading to London

I’m leaving to London early Friday morning for a week. It’s going to be a chilled out vacation and so far I’ve got the following things planned, all of which I haven’t done before:

– Cadbury World
– Stonehenge
– The Newman Arms
– G Kelly Pie
– The Last Tuesday Society
– The Hideout aka Trisha’s
– Cabman’s Shelter
– Bicester Village

Still trying to find an interesting castle to visit. Oh and I need to walk through Hyde Park. For some reason I haven’t done that yet. I’ll be staying at Easy Hotel in Paddington again since I had a good experience the last time. I’m going for a slightly larger room this time around so looking forward to that. If anyone has any recommendations on where to go just leave a comment below. I’ll of course be going to the regular places like Harrods, Oxford Street, Portobello Road, Borough Market etc…




Categories
Automotive Kuwait Personal Reviews

My Ford Explorer 2012 Experience

I was contacted by Ford recently to test drive their all-new 2012 Ford Explorer. The last time I had driven an Explorer was ages ago and it was on a road trip from Montreal to New York and all I remember was how comfortable it was. Their new car looks a lot better and more exciting compared to their previous model which is why I was looking forward to trying it out.

The first thing I noticed when I started the car was the combination of an analogue and digital dashboard. The speedometer was analogue while the information on both its sides were digital which I thought looked very cool. The second thing I noticed was the large screen in the center console which turned out to be touch sensitive and featured something called SYNC which I’ll go into detail in a bit. So first impressions wasn’t bad at all.

Since I had the car with me all weekend I drove it down to Bnaider and as expected the ride was very comfortable. The Ford is pretty big and spacious with three row of seating with the last row of seats having ample leg room. When the last row is folded down you also end up with a pretty large and spacious boot which I like to call IKEA friendly. The model I had (XLT) came with a rear view camera which was practical although I wish it also came with a front cam or at least front sensors since the front of the car is pretty long and high. While we’re on the subject of wishes there are two things I really disliked in the Explorer. The first is the touch buttons on the center console. For some reason Ford decided to have all the physical buttons touch sensitive but I have something against touch buttons because I can’t tell if I’ve pressed them or not specially when my eyes are on the road. Although you hear an audible alert when you touch a button I always prefer to actually feel a button being pushed in which doesn’t happen with these buttons. The second thing I disliked about the car was that it was front wheel drive. I thought that was odd for an SUV especially since it was full time front wheel drive and didn’t have an option to flip into four wheel drive. That turns out is an extra option which the car I drove wasn’t equipped with.

Other than those two quirks I didn’t have any other major issues. The SYNC feature which I mentioned earlier is very cool although I wasn’t able to fully take advantage of it. Right below the center console is a small compartment which can easily hold an ipod or iphone with accessories. In that same compartment is an SD card slot, two USB ports and RCA (video and audio) inputs. The car also has built in bluetooth and Wifi. I’m not sure why all the cars don’t come fitted with Wifi, it should really be a standard feature nowadays. I was also able to connect the car to my phones 3G connection using bluetooth but the car can also connect to internet using USB 3G modems and Wifi. You could also have the car connect to your phones internet via bluetooth and the car can then share the connection over wifi for other passengers to use. My problem is once the car connected to my internet I didn’t know what I could do with it. I’m guessing I need to download apps or widgets but since it wasn’t my car I didn’t spend too much time experimenting.

The car I drove had a pearl white exterior with a beige interior. If I was getting this car I would definitely go for a gray or black interior since it would make the car interior look a lot trendier but I’m not sure if they carry those colors locally. The starting price for the new Ford Explorer is KD9,999 and goes up to KD14,000 depending on the features and model. For more information on the Explorer click [Here]

Ford if you’re reading this.. I WANT TO TEST DRIVE THE RAPTOR!




Categories
Personal

Health Insurance

My current health insurance isn’t that great. I’ve been with them for around 7 years now and a couple of years back I found out I had mild asthma and my insurance company sent me a letter saying that my doctor visits and medicine wouldn’t be covered (even though I had been with them for around 5 years and hadn’t really used them thanks to free health care. So now I’ve decided to look for a new insurance company. I checked out Bupa which is supposedly the best but the price I got quoted is a lot more than I am willing to pay.

Can anyone recommend an insurance company they’re using and are happy with?




Categories
Personal Videos

My Contour+ Review

I was looking for an action cam a couple of months back and narrowed down my options to the GoPro Hero, Replay XD1080 and the Contour+. It was a really tough decision because each one of these cameras had an advantage and disadvantage. With the GoPro I hated the form factor, it felt too awkward to use and I didn’t feel comfortable using it but it was the cheapest of the bunch and the video quality wasn’t that bad. Plus it’s the most popular action cam with a ton of mounts. The Replay XD1080 is the smallest of the three and has a very easy to manage form since it’s basically just a small cylindrical tube. The downside is that it’s the least popular of the 3 so I couldn’t find much feedback on it and it also had a limited amount of mounts which were also expensive. Finally I checked out the Contour cameras. I love how they look and at first I wanted to go with the entry level Contour Roam which was waterproof and pretty cheap compared to the Replay and GoPro. But, it had one limitation which was the fact it couldn’t record at 60fps which meant if I ever wanted to do any slow motion I wouldn’t be able to properly. I then decided to check out the Contour GPS which was a notch above and finally ended up with the Contour+ which is their top of the line model.

The Contour+ has a bunch of cool features which I will try to go through quickly. First it has built in GPS. When you record a video with GPS turned on and then upload the footage to their website, you get a small map next to your video showing you the route you had taken. That can be handy if you’re racing around a track or going on trails but I don’t have a use for this feature and I always keep it off to gain around 30 minutes of extra battery life. The camera lens rotates which is super practical because if I mount the camera upside down or sideways, I just rotate the lens so that the footage ends up facing the right way up. It also has a bright f/2.8 lens and from the 3 cameras in the line up the Contour+ offered the sharpest and most detailed footage. I haven’t seen a comparison yet to the GoPro Hero2 but I would think the Contour+ is closer in quality to that than it was compared to the previous Hero.

My favorite feature of the Contour+ is the ability to turn my iPhone into a viewfinder for the camera. With one button press on the camera, the Contour App launches on my iPhone and I can then see what the camera sees. Not only that but I can also use the app to change the camera settings like exposure, brightness, contrast, resolution etc. Another feature film makers will like is the external mic jack. What this will allow you to do for example is mount the camera on the outside of the car while having the mic inside the engine bay recording the engine sound without the wind noise. The Contour+ (and the whole Contour family) also has a large sliding button on top of the camera which you use to start or stop recording. It’s easy to activate while wearing gloves and it allows you to tell if you’re recording or not either by feeling where the button position is or just looking at it.

The build quality of the camera is great, it has a brushed metal body and feels like it can take a hard drop. It’s not waterproof but I purchased the waterproof case which makes it resistant up to 60m. I also purchased a universal mount which is a small adapter that gives the Contour+ a tripod mount. I didn’t purchase any official mounts from Contour, instead I purchased some more durable and sturdier metal mounts from RAM. I got the flat surface suction mount and another mount for my bike.

Arctic Cat from Mark on Vimeo.

I really love the camera and have no regrets getting it even though the Hero2 got released. The quality of footage is very good (watch above) especially when the weather and light is great. Customer support is also superb. They have pretty active forums and their customer support people are always there ready to answer or solve any of your problems. Not all is perfect since I do have two issue with the camera and the big one being the price. Both the GoPro and Replay XD cost around $300 while the Contour+ costs a whopping $500! You could literally get two GoPro cameras for the price of one Contour+ which is just insane. I had a bunch of PayPal credits which is why I went for it but if I was paying for the whole thing myself I would have most likely gone with the Replay XD instead. Another issue I have is with the night time footage quality. The image isn’t as clear as I would have liked it to be but it’s probably me expecting too much from these small action cam sensors. You can see a short nighttime footage below.

But as I said, I have no regrets getting this camera and compared to the GoPro which I tried using, I found the Contour+ a lot more easier and natural. If you’re interested in purchasing it get it from ebay. I got mine brand new for $455 including the waterproof case. That’s a big saving compared to Amazon’s $499 listed price for just the camera without the case.




Categories
Geek Personal

The Windows Phone

I finally met someone who has a Windows Phone and I have to ask this but why would anyone choose Android over Windows? I’m a huge iPhone and iOS fan but if I was gonna change to another system it wouldn’t be Android (which to me looks like a cheap Apple clone) it would be to Windows Phone. Instead of trying to make their operating system look like an iPhone they’ve done something completely different and I love it.

I got to play around with the phone briefly but visually I found the system appealing with smooth and cool animations. From what my friend demonstrated to me it’s also a very social networks friendly phone allowing you to stay connected with close ones in a similar way you would on Facebook.

If you have an iPhone or Android phone you can actually try a demo of Windows Phone by visiting the following url from your phone:
https://aka.ms/wpdemo




Categories
Personal Travel

Dubai Airport – Terminal 3

I had to go to Dubai for a day and got to experience Dubai Airport’s Terminal 3 for the very first time and I’m impressed. The terminal is huge, but not in the regular sense more like palace kinda huge. Lot’s of high ceilings and very large empty spaces. When I arrived to the airport it was empty with barely any passengers which I thought was cool. Can’t wait until our new airport gets completed. Below is a video I shot of their check in area (the left half, there is another similar area on the opposite side) showing how big and empty it was.


[YouTube]

Picture taken by Patrick




Categories
Personal

BBC Problems

Anyone else experiencing reception problems with BBC lately? The reception seems to have gotten worse over the past week and strangely the station disappears completely once I hit the Sheraton roundabout…




Categories
Food & Drinks Kuwait Personal

A Double Cheese Burger

I posted this picture on instagram and it got a lot of interest so I figured I post it here with more details. The picture above is of the new Double Cheese Burger at Little Ruby’s. Unlike their other burgers this one uses a regular bun and the patty is a different blend as well. I thought it was pretty good, I’d have a difficult time choosing between this burger and my other favorite their Bronte burger. It’s also the cheapest burger on their menu, I think it was KD3.1 and includes their awesome fries. Speaking of prices, they’ve gone ahead and increased their prices once again for some reason. I hate it when restaurants do that.

In case you’ve never heard of Ruby’s here is my original post on them. [Link]

Note: Ruby’s is NOT Ruby Tuesday.




Categories
Personal Travel

Bahrain

I had a quick trip to Bahrain today and while there I spotted a lot of check points with concrete barriers and heavily armed police. I really hope everything gets better in Bahrain, it’s a beautiful country with great people and I hate seeing it like this.




Categories
Automotive Personal Travel Videos

Snowmobile Fun

I finally got around to putting together this video I shot last week when I was in Lebanon. I rented a snowmobile up in Mzaar (Faraya) near the ski slopes from a company called Highland Club. It costs $100 for an hour but they have better deals on longer journeys. For example they can take you from Faraya to the Cedars and back for around $400. That’s a 3 hour trip each way and comes to around $65 an hour.

If you’re ever in Lebanon and are interested in taking out a snowmobile you can call them on +9613860867 for reservation and directions or just go up to Mzaar near the slopes and ask for snowmobile rental places. [Vimeo]




Categories
Personal Photography Travel

My Travel Photos

The only camera I have with me right now on my vacation is the iPhone 4S and so far it’s been pretty great. One advantage the iPhone (or any phone cam) has over a regular camera is the fact you can share the photos instantly, kinda like Polaroid’s. I’ve been posting a lot of photos on Instagram and I just found a way to share them with none Instragam users using a site called Extragram. So if you want to check out the photos I’ve been taking on my trip just click [Here]




Categories
Personal Travel

Let it snow LET IT SNOW!

I was hoping to spend this week in Lebanon snowboarding or renting a snowmobile and going cross country over the slopes. I even packed my Contour+ video camera since I wanted to capture some video to share on the blog and I also packed lot’s of thick jackets. But, this whole week I’ve been here in Lebanon the weather has been pretty warm. I’m literally wearing a t-shirt during the daytime and a very very light jacket at night. There is no snowboarding, no snow and it’s not even cold. WTH?




Categories
Personal Shopping

The 2:48AM Holiday Gift Guide

Since it’s holiday season I thought it would nice to bring back the Holiday Gift Guide. The last time I put a list together was back in 2005 so it’s been awhile. The list below is made of items I like and think would make great gifts. Might add more if I remember anything else.

Books
Apple Pro Training Series: Final Cut Pro X KD9.5
Apple Pro Training Series: Motion 5 KD10
Wheat Belly KD4.5
Kindle 4 KD22

Cameras
Panasonic GX1 with 14-42mm X Power Zoom Lens KD265
Nikon D7000 with 18-105mm lens KD420
Contour+ KD128
GoPro Hero2 Motorsport Edition KD115
RAM Mounts Windshield Suction Cup Mount Kit KD8.5

Music
Apple iPod Nano 8GB KD34
Sony MDR-XB500 KD14
BeyerDynamic DT 770-PRO KD55
FiiO E7 USB DAC and Portable Headphone Amplifier KD25

Electronics
Apple MacBook Air 13″ 128GB KD340
The Boxee Box KD48
Data Robotics Drobo 4-Bay KD85
Garmin Forerunner 305 with Heart Rate Monitor KD50
Archos 70 – 250 GB KD65

Other
HPI Savage XS Flux RTR Mini Monster Truck KD88
SUPABOY Portable Pocket SNES Console KD23

Note: Most of the items above are linked to Amazon.com




Categories
Kuwait Personal

I live in the ghetto


[YouTube]

So last night I was trying to go to sleep at around 1:30am when I heard a loud commotion outside. I’m used to fights taking place underneath my building since there is a billiard place next door but this didn’t sound like an ordinary fight since it was pretty loud. So I put on my pants and hoodie and headed downstairs to see what all the commotion was about.

Turns out there were around 30 guys pushing, shoving, shouting and punching over I don’t know what. I thought about taking my phone out and shooting some pictures or video but since no one else was doing it I figured it would probably not be a good idea to do so. I ended up going back up to try and go back to sleep but around 15 minutes later 5 police cars arrive filled with cops.

Now that’s the first time I’ve ever seen cops come to a fight in my block. I’ve actually tried calling the cops myself before when there were guys running around the mall in my building with razor blades trying to cut each other and the cops never came. So my theory is this. I think the cops are starting to take these street fights seriously after the incident that took place at Marina Crescent. Are they waiting for a major incident to take place on the Gulf Road before they start patrolling it?