Category: Personal

I passed by Schlotzsky’s for lunch today and I left confused. I used to like this one kind of turkey sandwich back when I used to have Schlotzsky’s in Lebanon but I couldn’t find that sandwich on the menu here. In fact, from a total of around 8 sandwiches, 5 were turkey and from those 5, 4 were practically exactly the same. Other than their names they all seemed to have the exact same ingredients. I ended up going with a small original turkey sandwich, it was good, better than the sandwiches at Quiznos but not as good as the one I used to have. I need to go back and try the other turkey sandwiches until I find one similar to the one I used to have. Price for the sandwich was KD1.100. They’re located across from Al-Raya in Kuwait City.

Update: They deliver.. 22320777 (Thanks Nibaq!)

I’ve started experimenting with Twitter, trying to figure out why people use it. I already set myself up with an account and I’ve started posting there. I even installed a twitter application on my iPhone so now I am posting to my twitter account through out the day. If you want you can check it out by going to twitter.com/mark248am

When I first started this blog over 4 years ago I was getting only a handful of visitors a day. Since then the site hasn’t stopped growing and I’m now averaging over 10,000 visitors a day. From day 1 the blog was being hosted by a good friend but now it’s time for me to move the blog to its own dedicated server.

I just signed up with Rackspace, a leading web hosting provider hosting sites like Threadless, 37signals, Liquid Web Laughing Squid, ESPN, Disney Online, Motorola, Canon USA and more. They gave me a really good deal and promised to have my server up and running by Tuesday. This means I would probably start moving my blog to the new server sometime late next week.

If you’re interested my new server will have the following specs:

Dell 2850
Dual socket = 2 Xeon 3.2 GHz performance CPU’s
Two 146GB 10,000 rpm Hard drives (Raid 1)
4GB RAM
1 x Cisco 506 Firewall
24x7x365 Unlimited live person support
Guaranteed 1 hour hardware replacement
100% network uptime (Backbone = 65GB throughput)
1000 GB High Performance, Tier 1 Redundant Bandwidth
Constant network monitoring for latencies and intrusion

During the move there should be some downtime but I will post about it ahead of time.

I am extremely tempted to buy the RC plane pictured above and get into the hobby. It looks fantastic and comes ready to fly meaning I don’t need much to get it up and running. Price wise its also very affordable costing KD124 on Amazon. I’m just worried summer is already here and outdoor activities season is over. [Amazon]

Note: The plane is 1.28m long and 1.48m wide. Its gas powered and comes with a flight simulator software which will help you learn how to fly the plane on the computer first. Also comes with an adapter that will connect your radio controller (pictured above) to the computer to use with the flight sim. More details on this plane can be found here. [Link]

Just got back from watching The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It was toooo long and verrrrrry boring. Maybe if it was an hour shorter, MAYBE it would have been interesting but it just dragged and dragged. On my way out I overheard a group of girls talk about how much they loved the movie and I guess thats how it got an 8.3 out of 10 on IMDB, its a chick flick!

On a positive note before the movie started I watched the trailer for Watchmen, now THATS going to be one helluva movie! [Link]

It’s cold, its wet but the air is so clean and fresh. No dust!

They’re big. I think that summarizes my experience with the Beats. As I said in my first impression I would post about the Beats after my experience with them traveling so here it is. Basically they are extremely comfortable, they sound amazing and the noise reduction is pretty impressive. The biggest and only problem I have with the Beats is the size. They barely fit into my messenger bag! If I had my backpack it wouldn’t be such a problem but I am now mostly traveling with my messenger bag and the Beats are too big to fit comfortably in them.

While on the plane watching an episode of Boston Legal on my iPod, a guy sitting across me in the isle tapped my shoulder. Turned out he had the Bose QuietComfort 3 and wanted to know if the headphones I had on my head had noise reduction. I gave him the headphones to try on and according to him the Beats had better noise reduction than the QuietComfort 3 which actually impressed me since I am not a big fan of Bose. He also commented on the fact how the Beats fit around the ear giving a perfect seal while the Bose fit over the ear. He thinks thats why they offer better noise reduction which makes sense.

Anyway although I really love these headphones I highly doubt I will end up buying them. I need travel headphones and although these are very comfortable they just aren’t practical to lug around because of their size. If only they folded down flatter…

Amazon is currently offering a $50 discount on the Beats by Dre. Click here to check it out. [Amazon Link]

A friend recommended I try The Butcher Shop burger for my Burger Challenge so I passed by a few nights ago to give it a shot. I’ve been to the Dubai branch before but haven’t been to the Kuwait branch one since they launched so I was looking forward to it especially since my friend told me their burger was “amazing”.

I passed by The Butcher Shop the night there was the big dust storm so they only had two tables occupied. All of Avenues was empty which I actually found pretty cool. I quickly flipped through their menu looking for the burger section and then told the waitress I would have the cheese burger medium well and a coke to go with it. It was around 8pm and I hadn’t eaten a single thing all day since I was busy with work so I was really looking forward to the burger.

The burger arrived shortly thereafter and to my disappointment it didn’t look very appetizing. The presentation was pretty dull and I actually had a hard time taking a good shot to use with this post. Looks aren’t everything of course and I was hoping the taste would make up for the presentation. It didn’t surprisingly. The bottom of the bun was very soggy while the top bun was dry. The patty although thick and tender didn’t have any flavor. It was a really boring burger even though it was the only thing I had eaten that day.

The cost of the burger is KD2.950 which is fairly decent for a place like The Butcher Shop but I wouldn’t have it again. I was thinking of giving it a 3 out of 5 but the fact that I was extremely hungry without food all day and still managed to find the burger unsatisfying and flavorless dropped it down another half point to 2.5 out of 5. If you’re at the Avenues and are looking for a good burger have Johnny Rockets or Ruby Tuesday instead.

The Butcher Shop is located at The Avenues
The cost of the Cheese Burger is KD2.950

Here are the burger places I’ve reviewed so far:
Applebee’s
Bredz
Burger Boutique
Fuddruckers
Hashi
Gaucho Gril
Gourmet Burger Kitchen
Johnny Rockets
Munch
Papa John’s Burgers
Prime & Toast
Ruby Tuesday
Slider Station
Sheraton Hotel
The Burger Hub
The Little Oven
Wimpy

I’m taking off to Lebanon today on a work related trip and will be back in around 9 days which means I will be back just in time for Foam Fest 2009.

Today I went off-roading with some friends. First in our real cars and then in our radio controlled ones. We had three Tamiya FJ Cruisers, my Tamiya Lunchbox and my Tamiya Frog. It was extremely fun, I bashed the hell out of my Lunchbox and it now needs a major paint job but I don’t care. I took a ton of pictures and so did my brother but I couldn’t put all of them here. There are a few more pictures below though if you hit continue.

Update: My brother just uploaded some photos to his flickr account [Here]

I got an email the other day from Alghanim Electronics asking me if there was anything they had I would be interested in trying out and reviewing. I thought about it for a bit and decided to ask for the Beats by Dr.Dre headphones. I’ve been thinking about getting them but really wanted to try them out first before spending the big bucks. I already have a lot of head/ear phones: Bang & Olufsen A8, Shure E2, Sennheiser PX100, AKG K81 DJ and the Ultimate Ears Super.fi 5 Pro. So I really needed a good reason to get another and I think I just found it.

THE BASS!

Damn, I was just listening to random stuff from my itunes list, Nine Inch Nails, Paul Oakenfold, Warren G, Pet Shop Boys, Chemical Brothers.. just anything I clicked on and everything was sounding really great. Then I put Touch It by Busta Rhymes and my jaw hit the floor. I am still in shock on how something so small (ok they aren’t really small but they are smaller than my full sized speakers) could put out this much bass. It just sounded incredible, makes me want to keep listening to music all day.

The headphones cost KD99 at Alghanim Electronics which surprisingly makes it cheaper than Amazon. On Amazon.com they cost KD95 (with tax) plus factor in KD5.5 for shipping and you end up paying at least KD100. Will post more about these headphones once I get to properly test them out.

Update: Amazon is currently offering a $50 discount on the Beats by Dre. Click here to check it out. [Amazon Link]

I had been hearing a lot of negative stuff about Dean & Deluca like how everything they have is available at Sultan Center, or how their prices are too expensive and how they really don’t have many products so when I passed by this weekend I wasn’t expecting much.

The place ROCKS. I don’t know what people are complaining about. First of all I don’t think I saw anything there that was available at Sultan Center. Price wise, yes they have caviar that costs over KD2,000 and Black Truffles that cost over KD600 but those items aren’t meant for us, they’re for the people who can afford them. I checked out their meat section and found their prices actually cheap, at least I think KD3.600/kg for Wagyu beef is cheap. They have around 6 or 7 types of mushrooms and a whole range of fruits and vegetables that I haven’t seen before. They even have a great seafood section. I also found out they made gourmet sandwiches, kinda like the ones at Napket and also have ready made soup (Lobster Bisque for KD2).

I am really glad a place like Dean & Deluca opened up in Kuwait and I hope it does well so that it remains open. Places like this bring back the joy in cooking. If you haven’t passed by please do, they’re located in the Avenues, phase II.

(I couldn’t take any pictures because the two times I passed by it was PACKED so if you have any pictures email them to me)

I always knew hotel security was just a gimmick of a sort to let guests feel more secure but I didn’t think they sucked this much. The picture above is of a large container I had in my trunk last night when I drove through a hotel check point at a major hotel here in Kuwait. The hotel had the large metal door that comes out of the ground and security guards with the mirror on a pole checking underneath the car while another one checks the trunk. When I was asked to open my trunk I was like shit now they are going to tell me to remove the case from the back of my car to open it and I really wasn’t in the mood. Surprisingly even though they checked the trunk and saw the container they didn’t even ask me what was in it (it was camera equipment if you want to know). Me and my friend were dumbfounded! Why do they even bother to look in the trunk? How do they expect a bomb to look like, a few red dynamite sticks with a golden colored clock like in the cartoons?

Some of you requested pictures of the seats, I took some shots today on my way back. The one above is of the first class seats while the one below is of the premium economy seats. Also below is a picture showing the amount of legroom in the economy class. I am 1.86m and as you can see there was plenty of room for my legs. Also the economy class seats have power sockets.

As I mentioned in my previous post I flew with Wataniya Airways to Dubai tonight. It was a very comfy flight since I flew first class. They are my clients so if I say they’re amazing many of you won’t believe me so I will just talk about some of their features.

When you get to the Wataniya Airways airport (Sheikh Saad Terminal) you will be greeted by a Wataniya Airways employee that will check you in while you wait in the first class lounge. When its time for you to board a Wataniya Airways employee will come to you and take you through emigration and then a private car will drive you to the plane. It feels like you’re traveling on a private jet basically.

The seats of the plane are very comfy, look great and are designed by Recaro who are known for their racing seats. First class have a very cool inflight entertainment system which consists of a huge 10.6inch touchscreen. Other than the on demand video the coolest feature has to be the fact you can plug in your iPod or any video device and watch your movies on the planes 10.6inch screen since it has RCA inputs which are located on the side of the seat. A power socket is also available. Finally you can currently send SMS’s and use your phones Internet connection while on the plane which was the first time I experience that. This is a feature available to everyone on board not just first class. Also by next month you should be able to make voice calls with your phone from the plane.

When you land in Dubai you are then guided through the airport by Marhaba employees. They are hired by Wataniya Airways for all their passengers not just first class to offer any kind of assistance needed. Overall a pretty great experience, I love their private airport. Because its just for Wataniya Airways there isn’t any kind of crowd and everything works a lot quicker. Will post pictures of the airport in a few days. If anyone has any questions regarding my experience you can post them in the comments and I will try my best to answer them.

Oh and one more thing. The duty free shop is digital, you flip through the products available for sale on your touch screen and you add whatever product you want into your cart. The flight attendants then bring you your items. I thought that was also pretty cool.

Update: Turns out in flight voice calls WON’T be available next month.