Category: Personal

I know I haven’t mentioned anything about the Benihana case recently and thats not because they’ve dropped the case against me but because I’m trying to keep a bit of normality on the blog. Today though blogs around the world have taken my original Benihana review and reposted it on their blogs while twitter also lit up with supporters tweeting against Benihana’s actions. So, I decided to post a status update on the situation so far.

Yes, Benihana are still suing me

If you don’t know what all this is about here is a quick summary. Last December I passed by Benihana for dinner and then the same night I posted about my experience which wasn’t that great. The next day a person claiming to be the GM of Benihana commented on my post threatening to sue me for my review. A month later I got served with a court order, Benihana was suing me for posting a not so positive review.

After getting the court order and talking to my lawyer, I decided to share with everyone what was happening to me. Originally I had thought this lawsuit was just going to affect me but I quickly realized this lawsuit was bigger than me since the outcome of this case would affect all the bloggers in the region. The amount of support I started receiving from people was unimaginable. Bloggers and tweeters all around the world posted what they thought about this lawsuit and the media quickly picked up on it.

As of today the case still hasn’t been dropped by Benihana and I am still being sued by them. According to the court order they’re suing me for a yet undisclosed amount that will be over $18,000. I am not sure why they want my money and I really think this lawsuit is unfair. Being sued for a review that wasn’t even that negative is just ridiculous.

My court date is still scheduled for March 8th. Below are links to my previous Benihana posts. Thank you once again everyone for your support.

My Benihana Experience
I’m being sued by Benihana
Media coverage on Benihana post

Have you gotten your loved one a Shani today?

Awhile back my MacBook was starting to feel sluggish and I was really tempted to buy a newer model but since I was just using the laptop to get online from the couch or for when I travel, I didn’t think it was worth buying a new laptop. Instead, I decided to upgrade my MacBook from a 2.5inch 5400rpm 250GB hard drive to a 64GB SSD.

What is SSD? SSD stands for solid-state drive and to keep it simple its just a hard drive with no moving parts and is around 5 times faster than regular notebook hard drives. I ordered the ADATA 64GB drive from Amazon since based on my research I found it had the best bang for the buck. I also looked at two other brands before deciding on ADATA which were OCZ Technology and Crucial Technology, both of which have extremely fast performance drives but at a slightly more expensive cost.

I could easily review the drive in just 7 words: “It makes all other computers feel slow”. It cut down the boot time of my MacBook to less than half and it also sped up the launch time of all the applications. For example it now takes 1 second to launch Photoshop while other applications like Safari and Microsoft Word launch practically instantly. No waiting or spinning colored wheel just click and they’re open. The SSD drive not only brought new life to my aging MacBook but for day to day use it made it feel a lot faster than all my other computers including my already very fast iMac and Mac Pro.

I got the 64GB SSD and not something larger because the prices became tooooo expensive with the larger drives. For example a 256GB SSD would cost you around $500 which is nearly half the price of a brand new MacBook! The 64GB drive on the other hand cost me around KD35 with shipping to Kuwait and after installing the OS and ALL my software I still had 40GB of free space left. That’s more than I need since I just use my MacBook to surf the web, edit some pictures and for traveling. If you’re planning on storing media like your photo or music library than I highly doubt 64GB would be enough.

I would definitely recommend everyone pick up an SSD drive if you can, it really makes a HUGE difference. But, if you need a large drive and are not in a rush, the longer you wait the cheaper the prices will get. Here is the Amazon link to the hard drive I got [Link]

After dropping off the Vespa over the weekend I picked up the Italian made Piaggio MP3 and looking at the picture you will straight away notice that this bike is in fact a trike since it has two wheels in the front and one in the back. It’s a strange and futuristic looking scooter that to me could have been perfect if it wasn’t for two annoyances which I will discuss later.

The MP3 has a few features I liked which the Vespa didn’t, first of all it shows me the outside temperature on the digital display. This was actually important the past few days since I wanted to know how much I was freezing my ass off. Secondly it had a large front windscreen which helped block the wind from my upper body which played a crucial role in keeping me warm during the cold mornings. Finally and most importantly it had three wheels! The three wheels were a bit strange to get used to at first but they quickly grew on me. They offer better grip on the road specially when it’s wet and the MP3 felt a lot more stable at high speeds and when running over potholes. It also brakes a lot better than a regular two wheeled bike. In one incident I was riding in the left lane on the Gulf Road when the car in front of me decided to slam the brakes and make an illegal u-turn (seriously wtf?!) I quickly slammed the brakes and swerved into the middle lane and managed to avoid him. Later I realized if I was on a two wheeled bike I would very probably have slid the bike doing that. The scooter can also hit highways speeds easily so you can take this onto the ring roads and not worry about being too slow. As you can see in the video above it also has a lot of storage space.

Now that I got all the good stuff out of the way here are the negatives. There are three issues I found, 2 being major. The first minor problem is the fact that the scooter isn’t as nimble as the Vespa in parked traffic. The MP3 is a heavy scooter and a big one so weaving around parked cars in traffic is a lot more difficult. But that’s a minor issue. The two major issues I have with the MP3 relate to comfort. I found the MP3’s seat uncomfortable. I’m 6’1 and so I found the seat a bit low for my height and it also felt like it was tilted forward. The Vespa on the other hand was extremely comfortable and made me want to spend more time on the bike while the seat on the MP3 was giving me a wedgie the whole time. The second comfort related problem I faced was with the foot rest. The right footrest of the MP3 had a foot brake that activates all three brakes of the bike at once. I didn’t feel comfortable using the foot pedal so I had to place my big feet behind it which resulted in very little and cramped leg room.

So although I was really impressed with the MP3, the two comfort issues were a major let down specially since this is a scooter I would easily have considered for long trips. The Piaggio MP3 I rode was a 400cc and costs around KD2,800. They have a 250cc version for cheaper as well. If you’re interested here is the link to the Bike World website [Link]

———————–

Note: If you are a company and have an interesting product you want me to review (bikes, cars, gadgets, whatever) then email me. Reviews are for free. I get content to post while you get publicity, here is the [Contact Form]. I must be allowed to post a positive or negative review!

During the Gulf Run car show at 360 Mall my friend introduced me to the owner of Bike World who had a stand at the car show. The owner told me whenever I wanted I could pass by pick up a bike and try it out for a few days and then post about my experience (positive or negative). Since my car was in the garage and I’ve always wanted to ride a Vespa, I passed by last week and picked one up for a few days. I rode it during the cold and wet weather we had last week and this is what I thought about it.

I had never ridden a scooter before this Vespa but I’ve always had a thing for them. They always looked like a lot of fun to ride but for some reason I never had a chance to ride one before. I ended up picking up a silver 250cc version of the bike and it really did turn out to be a lot of fun. I hadn’t ridden a bike since I sold my Ducati Monster a few years ago so starting with the Vespa felt like the most logical thing to do. It’s a small bike and an automatic which meant it would be easy to ride. What I wasn’t expecting was the bike to be so snappy. I rode the Vespa into work every morning taking the Gulf Road route and I never felt the bike was slow. At traffic lights I was taking off pretty fast and on one highway I managed to hit 120km/h which is practically the bikes top speed. The comfortable cruising speed on the bike is around 90km/h which is why I didn’t (and wouldn’t) take the bike out on the major freeways and instead stuck to the Gulf Road.

The only downside I faced with the bike was parking it surprisingly. First night I parked it in my buildings underground parking the janitor knocked on my door and told me people might steal the bike and that I should take the bike up in the elevator and park it outside my apartment (seriously that’s what he told me). Then when I tried parking it under my office building the security guards also got me worried because everywhere I parked the bike around the building they would tell me a car might hit it. In the end they made me park the Vespa on top of the sidewalk on the side of the building. I found all that a bit too weird honestly. Anyway I dropped the Vespa yesterday morning back to Bike World and picked up a trike which I will be riding for the next few days.

The Vespa I rode costs around KD1,700 but they have Vespas starting from KD899. If you’re interested here is the link to the Bike World website. [Link]

Someone on twitter made me aware that some readers might not be aware of this. My YouTube channel is www.youtube.com/usurp

The YouTube channel www.youtube.com/mark248am is NOT mine. It does not belong to me and I have no access to it. A few years back someone set up a parody website called www.248-am.com (notice the extra dash) and started spoofing most of my posts. That anonymous person also set up the YouTube account mark248am. The parody website is no longer up but the YouTube channel is.

I’ve contacted YouTube before to shutdown the channel but they refused. But I now heard that there might be a case building against me based on that YouTube channel so I just wanted to make it clear to everyone that my YouTube channel is www.youtube.com/usurp

It feels very strange not having posted much here the past few days. I’ve had a lot on my mind so I haven’t really been focusing but it also felt awkward to post with all that was going on. No one has contacted me yet from Benihana and my court date is still set for March 8th. Once the trial starts it could take 2 years to finish and so I have to continue to post on this blog during that time.

Whenever there is any updates in the case I will post it here and keep everyone updated of course.

I would like to once again thank everyone who has been supporting me in this case. The amount of attention you’ve helped bring has just been mind blowing.

Yesterday I got served with a court order, Benihana are suing me because of my post about my experience at their restaurant. If you haven’t read that post yet you can check it out by clicking [Here]

I’m currently getting legal advice from my lawyer Khaled Al Shamali who is actually a fan of my blog (that’s important) and I will be fighting this case in court. Originally my lawyer told me not to discuss this case with anyone but I feel it is important to share this with everyone since it doesn’t just effect me but the whole blogging community be it in Kuwait, UAE or anywhere else in the region. So after talking to my lawyer again, he’s now given me the green light to be transparent and open with everyone regarding this case.

I’ve uploaded the court order I received yesterday and you can download it from [Here]

The court order is in Arabic but if someone ends up translating it to English I will post it up as well. Benihana have the right to sue me but I don’t believe I said or did anything wrong and I stand behind everything I said and wrote in that post.

I’ve personally been threatened with lawsuits a number of times before, I know another popular blog recently got threatened with a lawsuit from a restaurant as well and I am sure there must be other bloggers who at one point in time have also been threatened. If blogs were recognized like newspapers or magazines we would all be protected from lawsuits like this but at the moment we aren’t. I find this unfair and if I end up losing this case what will it mean to all the other bloggers? Should bloggers be afraid to say anything negative about a company? Should all our posts just be happy happy joy joy?

I’m hopefully not going to lose this case and will try my best to win it and set an example so that other companies understand that if they don’t like something they read on a blog they can’t just sue the blogger.

I’ve been receiving an overwhelming amount of support on twitter. Honestly as much as I am a geek I never really understood or realized how powerful twitter can be until now. I literally have over 50 pages filled with tweets from people all over the region offering support. It’s really unbelievable and a lot and I mean A LOT of people from UAE have also been rallying behind me on this and according to one twitterer (is that the right word?) the Benihana topic is currently trending in the UAE at #8 at #3. A lot of people have also been leaving comments on the Benihana’s twitter account @benihana__ and on their Facebook page. But a few moments ago they deleted ALL the comments from their Facebook page but luckily I saved a pdf with some which you can download [Here]. They were actually a lot more than that before they were deleted. a reader saved a screenshot of all the comments which you can see [Here]

So thank you everyone for your support, I will try my best to keep everyone posted along the way on everything that takes place regarding this case.

——————————————-

Update: I just finished an interview with the Dubai Abu Dhabi based newspaper The National. I will also be on air live tomorrow at 11AM Dubai time on the DubaiEye 103.8FM.

Update2: An amazing reader translated the court order to English. You can download it [Here]

Update3: Please no one call and harass Benihanna or their employees. You can show your support in other ways. Thank you.

Update4: The National article on this lawsuit is up and you can read it [Here]

Update5: I’m now on Gulf News [Here] CNN iReport [Here] and TNW Social Media [Here]

I’m currently in Beirut and supposed to get back to Kuwait tomorrow (Jan 25, my flight is at 2PM with Wataniya Airways) but for those of you following the news all hell has broken loose here in Lebanon due to politics. Tonight while I was out shopping they people started blocking the main roads with burning tires including the main airport road. Hopefully its going to be cleared by tomorrow although I doubt that is the case. I can’t wait to get out of here, have another flight on the 26th to Bahrain for Gulf Run and would rather be there then stuck here with all this crap going on.

Update: Just got to Kuwait. I left to the airport early this morning which was a good thing since I managed to get there before they blocked the main airport road. Now I’m back home and catching up on all my emails before I head off tomorrow to Bahrain for Gulf Run.

Picture by hibrme

Yesterday I noticed a truck pulled up behind my house and around 10 street cleaners got out and instantly started cleaning up the streets. I then looked further down the street and noticed another 10 street cleaners were already busy cleaning up as well. I thought that was pretty cool since the neighborhood needed this clean up but sadly the people in my area managed to trash it again by the time I was walking my dog at night. It’s very depressing. The streets were all rubbish free in the morning but by nightfall the trash was back again everywhere. Not really sure what I can do about it, I was thinking about putting up signs telling people not to throw trash on the floor but I doubt anybody would care. This morning the army was back cleaning the streets again but I doubt it will remain clean by the time I get back home.

Is it just me or does anyone else dislike the color of our current taxi’s (pictured above)?. I hate the beige and white combo and it really doesn’t add any life or color to the Kuwaiti cityscape.

On the other hand I love the color of the old taxis with the bright orange paintwork(pictured above). They’ve got more personality and when you see a group of them together its very colorful.

So why don’t we apply the orange color on the current taxis? New York have the yellow cabs, London the black cabs and we could have our orange cabs again.

After I posted about the Fiat 500 being available in Kuwait their brand manager contacted me and offered the Fiat 500 to test drive over the weekend. So I picked it up on Thursday and spent the weekend just driving the 500 around.

The car is cute, to me it’s like a Vespa except it has 4 wheels. Everywhere I went people would check it out, kinda like the effect the Mini and VW Beetle had when they were modernized and first launched. The dealer has currently imported one version of the Fiat 500 which is the Lounge model with the 1.4L engine. It’s fully loaded with leather seats, electric sunroof, dual logic semi automatic transmission, automatic climate control, steering wheel controls, fog lights, chrome trimmings and more. It generates only 100hp which I thought would be pretty lifeless but was actually surprised by the performance… for a small 1.4L car.

Friday morning I woke up and headed out to the junkyard to take pictures of the car. I know junkyard? But truthfully it’s one of my favorite places to take pictures since the place has a lot of color. Driving the Fiat 500 on the 6th ring road the car easily managed to keep pace at 120KM/h without a sweat. What I found though is that the car is a lot more fun to drive in more densely populated roads and areas where the Fiat is easy to maneuver and navigate. Finding parking isn’t a problem for the 500, I got to Ruby’s Friday night and found a tiny parking spot where some motorbikes had parked, with a little skilled maneuvering I was able to squeeze the Fiat in and parked alongside the motorbikes. The trunk is pretty small as well with enough room to fit just one large travel bag. But when you fold down the rear sits you end up with a lot more space. I picked up my dad from the airport Friday night and I managed to fit two large bags and one carry-on with still plenty of room to spare. The interior console is also pretty cool, very retro and definitely an eye grabber. Headroom was a slight issue for me, I’m 6’1 and had maybe an inch or two of clearance on top of my head so someone taller than me might have a problem.

For me the car would make a lot of sense back in Lebanon, the low gas consumption and the small size would make a perfect day to day car. I could easily imagine myself driving the Fiat 500 to work daily and then using the Toyota FJ on the weekends. In Kuwait on the other hand gas is cheap and unless you’re driving around in Shuwaikh at 1PM you could really drive around in a Hummer H1 and not run into problems. But I guess sometimes when you just need to go on a quick short trip, maybe you need to go down to Hawalli and pick up a new hard drive or pass by Sultan Center in Salmiya on a weekend, I can see the Fiat being very practical in those cases. University students looking for a first car might also be attracted to it. There aren’t that many cars in the Fiat’s price range which have a personality of it’s own.

The Fiat dealership is launching sometime at the end of the month. At first they will just be selling the Fiat 500 but they will also be bringing in other Fiat models as well. The Fiat 500 is selling for KD6,500 which is similar to the UK prices. They’re also going to be bringing in a model without a sunroof which should cost around KD6,000. Now the #1 question I was asked by my friends about the car is if the dealer will be bringing the turbo charged Abarth models. Well according to the brand manager they are currently in talks with Abarth and they’re hoping to open the first Abarth dealership in the region here in Kuwait. So that’s good news for people waiting for the Abarth model. If you have any questions about the car you can ask me in the comments below and I’ll try to answer it.

Cocoa Room is a new chocolate dessert concept by Basil AlSalem the Slider Station, Burger Boutique and Open Flame Kitchen creator. It’s his new dessert place that is opening up right next door to Slider Station. Last month I passed by Cocoa Room for the first time with some friends for a tasting session and yesterday night I passed by again with Nat and both times the food was amazing. The current tasting sessions include some new dishes that will end up on the Slider Station menu alongside the new desserts that were created specifically for Cocoa Room. Not sure where to start, maybe with the interior first. It’s small, but very cozy with a custom fitted velvet sofa running seamlessly alongside three walls. You come into Cocoa Room from a small doorway inside Slider Station and at night it’s very dimly lit with a large glass window that overlooks the Slider Station street entrance and waiting area outside. It looks very trendy and wouldn’t feel out of place if you stuck right in the middle of Soho.

Food wise I ate a lot. First time there I had 10 of the potentially new Slider Station dishes and then topped it off with 7 desserts from Cocoa Room. It was beyond filling, I felt like a python that had just devoured a sheep. Yesterday on the other hand I went back for a more moderate tasting session. Instead of eating everything I chose my favorite dishes from my first visit, I had some fried mozzarella balls on a Spanish salsa sauce, a veal and mushroom on potato crust starter, spicy lamb chops called Bangkok on Fire and finally pink spaghetti. For dessert I went with the Oreo fondant, chocolate lollipops and Nutella souffle. One thing I have to highlight here is that the lamb chops were the best lamb chops I ever had anywhere while the freshly made pink spaghetti was the best spaghetti dish I’ve ever had in Kuwait. I actually wanted to go back last night specifically to have those two dishes again. I’m really hoping they’re going to add them on the Slider Station menu very soon because they were really that good.

Now Cocoa Room on the other hand was supposed to open up soon but now the launch might be postponed since they just acquired the space next door so they might end up expanding Coco Room before it even opens. For now though you can enjoy some of the pictures I took below last night.

Last weekend Blink sent me a Logitech racing wheel to review for the blog. It was perfect timing since Nat was out of the country which meant I was home alone with Geo, my PS3 and a copy of Gran Turismo 5. The first racing wheel I ever owned was the Coleco racing wheel which I got back in the mid 80’s (and which I still have today). It came with a gas pedal and a copy of the back then amazing racing game called Turbo. Of course that was back in the mid 80’s and things have come a long way since then.

The first thing I noticed about the Logitech wheel is that it was heavy and that’s a good thing. The weight gives it a solid feel which I wasn’t expecting since the GT wheel is the younger brother of the more expensive Logitech G27 wheel. This is why I was expecting the GT wheel to feel a bit flimsy but it wasn’t at all. The racing wheel comes with a gear stick attached to the wheel and a separate gas and brake pedal with a rubber base to stop it from slipping. The force feedback is just amazing, it reminded me of the days when I used to spend all my money at the arcades playing Daytona with my friends. The force feedback is pretty powerful and I actually have to use a lot of force and fight with the wheel sometimes which again makes this steering wheel feel like it’s worth a lot more.

I tried the steering wheel on a bunch of games including MotorStorm, Formula1, Dirt2 and Gran Turismo. The steering wheel worked great in everything except Gran Turismo. I just couldn’t control my car properly and kept slamming into walls and spinning out. Not sure if it was the settings somewhere or the fact I was still not used to the steering wheel but I just couldn’t drive my car properly. I’m sure it was something from my side since this wheel is actually the official wheel of Gran Turismo which means it should work really well with it. On the other hand the wheel worked great in Formula1 and extremely well in the Baja races in Dirt2. As some points it felt like I was back in the arcade playing Sega Rally which is what I liked the best about the steering wheel. It’s an arcade wheel at home.

Another issue I faced was with the placement of the wheel. At first I tried to use the wheel on my laps (see picture above) but it didn’t work and was actually a bit painful. I then bolted it down to my coffee table but found it too low to be comfortable. Finally I ended up sitting on the floor with the wheel mounted on my coffee table and it felt like I was sitting in an F1 car which worked for me. If you have the space I would recommend you get something like [This]. Overall I liked the wheel a lot and thought it was really well built. If you can’t afford the Logitech G27 or don’t want to pay that much for a wheel then you can get this from Blink for just KD35. I give it a 4 out of 5.

Now if you’re interested in this wheel then you’re gonna like this since I’m going to give one away. If you want to win this Logitech GT racing wheel I just reviewed all you need to do is send me a picture of your PS3 setup. The person with the saddest looking setup will win the wheel. Make sure you have 248AM written somewhere in the shot (so I know you took the picture) and send your pictures to [email protected]. Send all pictures by Saturday 9PM the latest.

The past two weeks they’ve been digging up the street in front of my house in Salmiya (the old shopping street in Salem al Mubarek street). At first I thought they were actually reducing the size of the middle sidewalk to add more parking spots which pissed me off since I walk my dog there every morning. Then yesterday I spoke to one of the workers and he told me that wasn’t the plan, it turns out they’re going to be planting the middle sidewalk like how it is on the Gulf Road.

Usually this would be a good thing. Who wouldn’t want to live on a green street? I usually would be all pro for going green but not in this case. The street is currently just one big garbage bin. It’s completely ignored, no one is taking care of it. The streets are crumbling, most of the buildings are getting ready to be demolished, there is trash everywhere, not enough garbage bins and there is a street fight practically on a daily basis because of this billiard place next to my house. A month or two ago while walking my dog at 8AM I heard a lot of shouting and screaming. When I got closer I noticed two gangs throwing rocks at each other. One group of guys looked like Emo’s, they were standing across the street yelling and throwing rocks at another group of tubby guys standing on the other side of the street screaming back. There was a shop with a broken window because it got hit by a flying brick. This was at 8 in the morning!

I’ve lived in the exact same spot now for over 30 years and I’ve seen it turn from a trendy high end street to the dump it is now. If you check the archives you’ll find a number of posts (Here is one) where I’ve asked to be put in charge of the area so I could bring it back to life (Here is another). Currently I spend my mornings picking up broken bottles and pieces of glass so that my dog doesn’t end up getting cut. No one ever cleans up the garbage and everyone seems more than happen to just throw everything onto the floor. I’m lucky that the care taker of the building next to mine cleans up the alleyway between our two buildings or else it would just be a garbage dump.

So the idea that they’re planting grass in the middle of the sidewalk in what currently is a half deserted shopping street full of garbage just doesn’t make any sense. Whats going to happen is you’ll have all this greenery with white tissue papers and chips bags dangling off them like decorations. Instead of going green, can we go clean instead? Can someone please put me in charge of Salem Mubarek Street?