Category: Personal

I am at the BMW dealer getting an oil change but something is strange. The service is actually good and instead of expecting to wait 3 hours for a simple oil change they told me it should take less than an hour. Something is wrong here… this is BIZARRO WORLD!

I passed by Saso Lounge yesterday for lunch. They are going to be placing a banner on my blog soon so I figured I would pass by and check the place out. The place is located in a strategic location, during lunch while I was there the place was full of business people since its close to many offices. The food was also pretty good and very reasonably priced. Its an Italian Asian menu which although sounds strange made perfect sense to me since while I was in Lebanon I had a habit of ordering Sushi and Pizza for dinner. The dish pictured above is the Shrimp n’ Hammour which was great and a dish I would order again. Check out their website for more details and their location. If you work in Kuwait City you should pass and try it out for lunch. [Link]

Just picked up my Wrangler, it looks really great and I love how it turned out. Now I need to go do some steering alignment in Shuwaikh!

I dropped off my Jeep at Auto Tech yesterday night so they could start installing my lift early today morning. I just passed by after work and they had practically finished the installation. They only have the motor mount spacers to install, a spare tire bracket to tweak and a test drive to make sure everything is fine. So I will passing by again tomorrow to pick up the Wrangler and then take better pictures. I managed to take a few shots now but there wasn’t much room to maneuver. They will also be flipping the tires inside out so that the white markings are facing the inside, that way the tires will be totally black matching the black rims.

I am not really a “lets save the world” type of guy but I don’t mind helping out by using less energy as long as it isn’t a hassle for me. With not enough electricity in Kuwait for everyone its even more important to try and save energy just so we don’t end up stuck in a 50 degree heat wave with no AC. Thats why I decided to finally try energy saving light bulbs. I used to hate them because I thought they all emitted white light which I don’t like but I just recently found out their are versions that emit warm colored light which matches regular light bulbs we are all used to. So, I passed by Ace Hardware today and picked up two 20w bulbs to try out. At KD1.050 a pop they are around 10 times more expensive than regular bulbs but they last 6 times longer and use around 4 times less energy. A 20watt energy saving light bulb is equivalent to an 85w Tungsten bulb.

First thing I did was try them out to see if the color of the light is fine and it is. It matches the color of regular light bulbs so I am now going to go back to Ace and buy a whole a bunch of these so I could start replacing all the bulbs in my house. If you’ve held back on buying these light bulbs there really isn’t a reason not to get them anymore unless its because of the price. But even the price shouldn’t be a factor, seriously how many bulbs do you have around the house? 10?

I passed by and picked up my Wranglers lift kit from DHL today. Yes they were open today, turns out they’re actually open 24 hours a day including Friday! My shipment got cleared from customs yesterday evening and I was planning on passing by them after leaving Marzouqs place but I was just really exhausted and actually ended up going to sleep at like 11. Anyway today morning I woke up and headed straight to DHL in my mums mini van. My shipment consisted of two large boxes weighing in total around 56KG. The total shipping cost came out to only KD125 which is around KD2.250 a KG which isn’t bad at all.

Now I am going to take an appointment with Auto Tech so that I can pass by them this week and install the lift on the Wrangler. They told me they would be able to finish it in a day if I bring them the Jeep early in the morning so I can’t wait! The picture above is of Geo posing next to all my parts which now include:

5 Hankook DynaPro 33×12.5 tires
5 steel Cragar wheels
4 Old Man Emu Coils
4 Old Man Emu Shocks
1 set of JKS disconnects
1 JKS 1.25″ Body Lift
1 JKS Motor Mount Spacers
1 JKS Adjustable Trackbar (front)
1 JKS Adjustable Trackbar (rear)
1 set of Old Man Emu bump stop spacers
1 set of bunp stop spacers (front and rear)
23 black power coated wheel nuts

I’ve had the E71 for a few hours now and so far compared to my previous phone the Nokia E61i, the E71 is better in every aspect. For those of you who own E61i’s you will be glad to know that the E71 is a much much faster phone, MUCH faster. Everything launches in a split second and moving from menu item to menu item and opening or closing an SMS is all instantaneous. The size of the device is also smaller, width wise its around 20% less fat and its also slightly less thick. The camera is finally usable and the keyboard although smaller than the E61i doesn’t feel cramped or strange in any way. I’ve also noticed the phone is a lot more customizable which is a plus and its also smarter. For example in the main screen if you no longer want to display SMS notifications, you just highlight it and press the delete button and it will ask you if you want to hide it from the main screen. The power button has now moved to the top which is a good idea since I had a bad habit of accidentally shutting the phone with my ear, not fun specially if you are in the middle of a conversation.

On the negative side the GPS seems extremely slow and unpractical. The phone also loves finger prints and smudges which is very iPhonish. The case also seems more fragile. I’ve dropped my E61i so many times and I am not sure the E71 can handle as much abuse. Overall though I am really impressed with the phone. I was expecting it to be better than the E61i and it has exceeded my expectation in every way so far. Oh and its no longer showing me MTC on the main screen, its finally showing me Zain KW!

I heard a lot of bad stuff about Toshiba hard drives yet somehow I ended up buying one. Back in February Nataly needed a larger drive for her MacBook and I ended up going to Red Star in Walla Complex in Hawalli to see what they had available. I usually buy my stuff from Red Star or SoftIsland across the street since they both usually give me the best prices. The largest drive they had in my budget was the 160GB Toshiba. I didn’t want to get it but the salesman there convinced me that unlike the old Toshiba drives that were made in China and were prone to failure, the new drives are now made in Philippines and were supposedly of much better quality. I bought into that and went ahead and purchased the drive.

Just before we sold her MacBook the drive ended up dying. Luckily she had everything backed up on her old drive and so was able to recover her work but the Toshiba drive was dead. I put it aside and forgot about it until a few days ago I accidentally found the original invoice. There in very clear hand writing it stated “6 months warranty”. I checked the date and realized it had only been 5 months since I bought the drive so I headed to Hawalli today and got the drive replaced. I wasn’t to sure if they would replace it for me or not since most of the places there are pretty shabby but Red Star were pretty cool and after testing it out told me I could come back tomorrow and get a replacement. Since I didn’t want to come back the next day and since I also didn’t want another Toshiba drive I ended up settling on a 120GB Seagate and a nice discount on a decent HDMI cable.

I just installed the drive in my PS3 and its working perfectly. I will never buy another Toshiba drive ever again and I would not recommend them to anyone. They are cheap which makes them tempting but you really should stay away from them.

How much does it cost to sponsor a bridge here in Kuwait and once I sponsor it would I be allowed to paint the whole bridge in fluorescent pink? I am sure it would look a million times better than the one pictured above and at least I would be adding much needed color to the Kuwaiti landscape.

Anyone remember Nintendo’s Game & Watch? I’m a huge fan of them and since its really easy to buy stuff from eBay now because of PayPal, I think I am going to get a few. Excellent condition ones cost over a $100 and brand new ones cost even more. Makes me wish I had kept mine when I was a kid.

Update: The current bid for an excellent condition LifeBoat Game & Watch is $399 with 11 bids and 2 days still to go! [Link]

Update 2: Ok, it seems this is the second time I am going through a Game&Watch phase. Found a previous post of mine on the subject. It reminded me though, I still need a boxed SIMON game and a boxed Speak & Spell! [Link]

My favorite person to go out eating with is Choowy Goowy guy since we both have similar tastes in food and all his recommendations usually leave me with a happy stomach. Yesterday we decided to pass by and have lunch at Burger Boutique, I hadn’t been there since Slider Station opened and since I am finishing up the Burger Challenge it was on my to do list.

It wasn’t easy trying to choose a burger to have. I’ve had nearly all their burgers before and they were all great but for the burger challenge I need to choose just one. I decided to go with one of their new burgers which came highly recommended, the Madison. I’ve had it before as a slider at Slider Station and loved it so I couldn’t wait to try the burger version.

The Madison’s ingredients are a chargrilled rib eye infused beef patty, processed American cheddar, pickles and west coast sauce. I ordered mine without pickles and fries as my side dish.

I love how Burger Boutiques burgers look like and the Madison is no exception. Although a simple burger the presentation was very appetizing with a great looking bun and nicely melted cheese on what looked like a perfectly sized patty. But not all was perfect. Although I loved the Madison slider I don’t think it works well as a full sized burger. I had the same issue with their Midnight slider, it was one of my favorite sliders but when I had it as a full fledged burger it didn’t come out as good. I think the sauce is great in small quantities but once you have a lot of it then it becomes a bit too heavy. The bun was excellent though and their beef patty is seriously one of the best.

I think Slider Station which also belongs to the same owners raised the bar on burgers in Kuwait and now a good burger just doesn’t cut it anymore. I am giving the Madison a 3.5 out of 5 which is still a really good score but just not as high as I was expecting it to get. I think the Madison is one of the best looking burgers so far in this challenge, I will definitely be having it again… but as a slider.

Burger Boutique is located in Alraya Mall
The cost of the Madison Burger is KD2.950

It’s been a while since my last burger review and I was hoping to start it off again with a great burger but that didn’t happen. I passed by Gourmet Burger Kitchen (GBK) today for lunch, it was my first time and probably my last.

Their burger menu is pretty big with lots of different styles to choose from. I asked the waitress what their most popular burger was and she told me it was the Cajun Burger. She also told me they had a special offer now where they gave away a drink and fries with the burger. I thought that was cool and I went ahead and ordered it.

The Cajun Burger is made up of Black-Angus beef, smoked chili mayo, salad, and Cajun relish. It didn’t take too long to arrive and at first glance it was disappointing. The burger looked very dry and unappetizing while the bread itself looked very poor and thin. It didn’t get any better from there. Once I had my first bite I realized that although looks can be deceiving, it wasn’t in this case. The burger didn’t taste good, the Cajun relish was slightly sweet and I didn’t think it went well with the chili mayo while the bun was the worst part. The upper half of the bun was very thin and was breaking apart while I was having the burger as if it was old. The burger was also pretty messy to eat which didn’t make things any better.

For a place like GBK which specializes in burgers its strange that their buns are so bad. Maybe GBK is a popular place in London but with strong local creations like The Burger Hub and Slider Station, GBK doesn’t have a chance here. I gave the burger a 1.5 out of 5. The burger patty was good but everything else around it wasn’t.

GBK is located in The Avenues and Marina Mall
The cost of the Cajun Burger is KD2.950

Back in February I posted about the upgrades I am planning to do for my Wrangler. In case you missed that post I am planning to give the Wrangler a 3.75 inch lift so I can fit 33 inch tires. Soon after that post I purchased the 5 tires from Hankook and ordered my black steel rims from the US. Then after that things kinda slowed down since I ended up traveling a lot and I decided to order the lift once I was back in Kuwait for a while.

Last month after coming back from Munich I placed an order for my full lift kit from DPG Offroad (pictured above) but since they didn’t have all the parts in stock I hate to wait a month for them to get the parts. Today I got an email informing me that all the parts are in and my kit is ready to ship. Tomorrow I will be contacting DHL here in Kuwait since they will be picking up my lift kit from DPG in the US and ship it to Kuwait. They offered me the best rate plus they would pick up the package from DPG themselves which is really practical. Hopefully I will have my lift by the middle of next month and then have AutoTech install it for me. I can’t wait!

This is the worst news ever and I can’t believe I just found out about it. A long time ago (like 6 years) before I started this blog I used to MoBlog. Basically I used to take pictures with my PDA, a Sony Clie UX-50 back then and upload them onto this site called TextAmerica. I had hundreds of pictures there ranging from my random lunches to interesting places around Kuwait. I actually preferred the pictures I had taken for my TextAmerica blog more than the ones I did later for my Miskan.com project because I felt they were more natural and random.

Just a few moments ago I went to my old Moblog usurp.textamerica.com and realized the whole site is gone. Turns out TextAmerica shutdown in December and I just found out now so i wasn’t able to back up my images and posts! This is depressing, soo many memories and moments which I had captured are now all gone.

After a very difficult decision I went ahead and purchased the Sony DSC-W300 digital camera. It was a difficult decision to make because the other camera options I was considering were all exceptionally good. I really wanted the Canon G9 for its SLR like features, the Ricoh GX100 for its strange look and the fact it took beautiful film like shots while the Sigma’s image quality alone was enough to tempt me to buy it. In the end though I REALLY needed a camera that I could carry around in my front pocket and I wouldn’t be able to do that with the three cameras I just mentioned. That brought down my choices to the Fuji F100fd, Nikon S600 and the Sony W300. The Fuji’s interface and usability I read would be a problem, the Nikon S600 lacked in certain features and I tried the S700 version at a Nikon dealer and didn’t like the feel of it so my final decision was to go with the Sony. I own two other Sony cameras at the moment, the Sony N1 and the Sony cult favorite the F717. Both cameras really exceeded my expectations and I never had problems with them so it only seemed fair I go with another Sony.

I purchased the camera from a store in Muthana Complex. The Sony dealer didn’t have the camera in stock and they were selling it for KD124.900, Carrefour also ran out of stock on the camera but they were selling it for KD123.900. But, I found a Sony reseller in Muthana who had the camera in stock and I managed to haggle my way and get the camera for KD118 with a 1GB Sony memory stick. The store if you are interested is located on the Mezzanine floor of Muthana between Andalus and the official Sony store.

First impressions so far is great. I’ve only taken shots in my office under the neon lights but the white balance did a good job. I also don’t need to turn on macro mode for macro shots, the camera automatically turns it on for me which is a nice little feature. I also shot inside at 1/30 with fairly shaky hands and the steady shot feature automatically came on to help keep my pictures sharp. The camera turns on and is ready to shoot in like under 2 seconds. Powering down takes around 3 which I actually find annoying since with my older Sony N1 I would hit the power off and then straight away put it into my pocket. Now I need to wait a second or two longer which means I have to change my habit. Other than that the only problem I can see at the moment is with the rear screen. With my Sony N1 the rear screen had a raised border around it which helped protect it from scratches, with the W300 the screen doesn’t have this border which makes it scratch friendly. This will only be an issue for me for the next week or two while the camera still has its “new smell” after that I won’t care much about it.

I will try to take a bunch of shots today in various conditions and post my second impressions. For now though I think I made the right decision. The camera has a ton of features and most importantly it fits into my pocket easily.

FYI: The reason I didn’t purchase the camera from Amazon was because after taxes it would cost me around KD100 then if you include shipping it would be around KD105 which isn’t a major saving. I would rather pay KD118 here, get the free memory stick, have a 1 year warranty and support a local store.

Update: This is a random shot I took outside on my way back from lunch. You can download the full untouched straight from the camera image by clicking [Here]. I shot this at the 8MP setting and not 13MP.

Update 2: Here is a shot of Nats MacBook Pro’s keyboard. It was shot at 13.6MP in macro mode using iso 1600. I am really impressed, keep in mind this is a P&S camera not a DSLR. The JPG is 4.38MB so its better if you right click and save as. [Picture 4.38MB]