Category: Personal

I took route 55 to get to the airport from my Kuwait City office and it was my first and last time I take that road to the airport. Too many traffic lights, lots of traffic, and just totally not the right way to get there fast. Anyway I am stuck in traffic and I look to my left and I see two Kuwaiti girls in a car. They look in their 20’s, the one driving looked like a nerd and her friend I guess looked decent. I didn’t think of them much and traffic started moving. We get to the next traffic light and they are still next to me. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed the decent looking girl was doing something, I didn’t turn to look because I didn’t want her to think I was checking her out or anything so I ignore it. Traffic light turns green we start moving and I look to my left and suddenly the decent looking girl is wearing a black hijab and her face is covered and you can just see her eyes. I was like what the fuck is going on here? We each drove off in different directions but I didn’t really understand what happened. Can anyone enlighten me on this? Is this like a normal thing?

There is a 50 meter running race thats been organized by a few of us here at my agency. I don’t know who’s idea it was but its a silly idea that everyone went a long with for the fuck of it. We will be 6 guys of various sizes and fitness competing in this race. I think I am the most unfit one between them all but I am the tallest between them. Back in elementary and middle school I used to be the fastest 50 meter runner (I have the cups and medals to prove it!) so I have experience or something. The location of the race is unknown but the timing is sometime today. I still think I am fast like I was when I was a kid so I believe I should kick everyones ass… or at-least try my best not to come out last. It should be fun.

Update: At the start of our lunch break we all headed down to the underground parking across the street. We decided we would race from one walk to the other wall on the opposite side. I fucking came last two times out of two races! I guess its a good thing, I used to think I was still as fast as I used to be and now I know I am not. It was an awakening.

A couple of days ago I was contacted by Bazaar magazine and was offered a chance to have my own “B-Sides” page in the magazine every month where I could post mini reviews on anything related to Kuwait. At first the idea sounded really interesting, combining blog with print sounded like an excellent opportunity. But the more I thought about it the more I realized.. excellent opportunity for what? What could I gain with this?

Increased Readership
Bazaar prints around 25,000 copies a month while 248AM gets more then 3 times that amount of visitors every month and we are still growing. Bazaar readers would only read around 4 mini reviews by me every month while my blog readers would read at least 4 mini posts by me a day. My sites url would be advertised in that Bazaar page but from those 25,000 readers how many would actually think about checking out my site? When was the last time anyone saw a url in a magazine and then checked it out online.. it happens but just not that often.

Digital to Print
At first this sounded interesting, but then I realized isn’t that a step backward? Isn’t print trying to get online? Shouldn’t Bazaar start thinking about getting online instead? WIRED magazine have a small 2 page section where they print interesting posts from the web but I never liked that section but thats besides the point, WIRED can do whatever they want since their whole Magazine is published for free online anyway.

The Money
The first offer I got was KD20 (yes two and one zero) a month. I calculated the amount of time and effort I would have to put extra every month to have at least 4 mini reviews of something interesting to do with Kuwait and I realized KD20 wouldn’t be worth my trouble at all. Bazaar were nice to say they would consider another amount I had in mind but if they had KD20 in their mind to begin with I doubt they would go that much higher.

The Magazine
Do I even like Bazaar? Not really. I do think its the best locally published magazine but thats because their competition is really crap. I pick up Bazaar once a month so I can skim through it quickly and see if there is anything interesting. I mostly don’t find anything worth reading and the magazine ends up in the trash or left on a food court table. I enjoy reading local blogs a lot more then I enjoy reading Bazaar thats for sure.

Who’s the boss?
When someone suggested to Zaydoun that he should hook up with one of the newspapers as a syndicated writer, Zaydoun replied saying “I am my own editor… I can’t imagine being subjected to deadlines and editorial controls!”.

So taking everything above into consideration, I sent an email back to Bazaar today morning thanking them for their kind offer but that I wasn’t interested. I think I made the right decision.

After work I passed by PWC to pick up my Crunch which a reader of the blog was nice enough to get me from Camp Arifjan after reading my post about how Crunch isn’t available in Kuwait. 48 pieces, 24 regular chocolate Crunch and 24 white chocolate Crunch. I had 3 on my way back home and I think I overdosed on them so now I have to wait it out a bit so I can have some more. I love Crunch.

The cookies I ordered from Choowy Goowy yesterday are here! It arrived a lot quicker then I was expecting it to since the guy told me he would try to have it by the afternoon at the latest. Anyways, the cookies look delicious but I can’t touch them since they are not mine. I am trading these cookies for a box of Crunch chocolate. A reader who read my post on how Crunch isn’t available in the supermarkets anymore was able to get me a box of Crunch from a US army base here in Kuwait. I love Crunch.

We took Geo to the vet over the weekend to check and see if his leg had healed. We removed the bandages from his leg and for the first time in 10 days he was able to scratch and lick it, I swear it must have been ecstasy for him. We decided to take some x-rays just to be safe and it turned out his bone had nearly completely healed and that we could keep the cast off him if we could make him not jump and run for the next week. That ofcourse is just impossible since Geo is like a puppy on speed. So we put the cast back on for another week. He should be in fit condition before his big day next month at the dog show.

I just ordered a jar of cookies from Choowy Goowy, at first the person I spoke to told me they don’t deliver just one jar and I needed to order more. I told him I had already ordered a jar alone before and that there are always people ordering from my office. He told me OK but that I would get my cookies in two days. I was like what about tomorrow, because when you crave cookies you want them right away, not in two days.. he told me he would try to get me them by tomorrow afternoon but no promises.

Seems their business is doing good and they are really busy, but I don’t like the idea that a person should order more then a jar and that he should wait two days to get it. I hope they don’t become slow like Aramex..

Toot is like safat but instead of it focusing only on Kuwait Blogs, Toot focuses on all Arab blogs in the region.

The idea is good but I just haven’t been able to use Toot the way I use Safat. In Safat I scroll down the page reading a “post title” followed by reading a sentence or two from that post. If the post preview sounds interesting I open it in a new tab and continue reading the full post on that bloggers site.

With Toot I can’t do that since the only thing I see is the post title and the blog its from.. no post preview. Sure they have a section on the main page called tootreads but these are a few handpicked posts and they are not updated very often. Even the tootstream where all the latest post titles are displayed isn’t easy to use since the name of the blog is highlighted more then the post title itself. I would think the title of the post would be more important then the title of the blog since you are there to find new posts to read and not to read blog names. Another issue I have is with the voting system. If you like a certain blogger you can vote for them and give them a rating. The problem is its not an easy procedure, to vote you need to give them your email address and they will send you an email with a link to confirm your vote. They are doing this I am guessing to keep away cheaters but this isn’t a full proof plan and it makes voting a pain in the ass.

I do like the general visual theme of Toot and I really think Safat needs to get redesigned into something thats as appealing. Even the “new” Safatoo isn’t any better and if anything its a lot worse then the classic safat. Safat is lacking an identity and thats where Toot is succeeding the most. Anyway if you haven’t checked Toot out yet please do and tell them what you think. [itoot]

Although I have recently lost a lot of weight I am now afraid I will be gaining it all again with my new chocolate bar craving. I am having atleast 6 chocolate bars a day and from what I am being told, its not helping my diet. So since I am attached to the habbit of eating chocolate bars I decided to get granola bars instead from Sultan Center and hopefully I am going to get attached to them. These bars are supposed to be healthy and won’t cause me to gain weight. I got the Apple Crisp flavor by Nature Valley but I haven’t tried it yet, I hope it tastes good, or at least decent..

Update: I just tried a bar and it tastes like wood. Actually I think wood tastes better. Need to try another brand like Kudos or something, they had a chocolate chip version.

Starting today I am back at work. I had to cut my ten day vacation short because I am needed back at the office. I wouldn’t call it a vacation actually, it was more like being under house arrest. I couldn’t leave the house and I could sleep late or wake up late because I had to take care of Geo (my dog). Thursday his cast will come off hopefully. For now, it feels good being back at work.

When I was in university I was a big X-Files fan and while flipping through some old files I found a picture of a painting I had done on my dorm room wall. If you look closely you can see Mulder shooting a runaway alien…

Update: Cool found more pictures of my first dorm room.. [Picture 1] [Picture 2]

OMG I think I am going to die. Geo my dog just farted twice in a row in the living room where I am sitting and now it really stinks. I am breathing through my mouth from under the blanket and I can still smell his fart. Its really a killer-fart, I swear I am going to pass out before I can finish this post!

Below are a list of TV shows I am currently watching, what I think of them and what episodes I just finished watching.

Grey’s Anatomy (Pictured above)
Season 2, Episode 18
Really entertaining and addictive, I am watching 2 a day.

X-Files
Season 1, Episode 12
Used to be my favorite show, I missed out on a lot of episodes when I was in university so I just started watching them all over again. I got 9 seasons which means I should be done by Christmas!

Prison Break
Season 1, Episode 13
I hated the show when I first started watching it because I didn’t like the main guy. Now though I still hate him but I really like all the supporting actors who are pretty fucked up but in a cool way.

24
Season 5, Episode 12
The best show ever, I have said it a million times already and will say it a million more times, Jack Bauer is just the coolest character ever. I was watching the movie Stand By Me the other day and it turns out Jack played the role of this delinquent teenager. It was an old movie and he was really young in it but he still looked a lot like Jack does now which made things weird.

Family Guy
Season 1, Episode 8
I watched the movie first, then I watched season 4 and now I am watching season 1. Doesn’t make sense I know but better then nothing.

Arrested Development
Season 3, Episode 10
I only have 3 more episodes left and I am scared to watch them. Arrested Development got canceled last year and the show ends at episode 13 of season 3 so once I am done, I am done forever. I never want the Arrested Development experience to end so I am watching only 1 episode a week but I know in three weeks time it will be all over, one of the funniest shows ever made will be over. Its sad.

The IT Crowd
Season 1, Episode 4
“Yeah, you do know how a button works, don’t you? No, not on clothes. No, there you go, I just heard it come on. No, that’s the music you hear when it comes on. No, that’s the music you hear when… I’m sorry, are you from the past? ”

Reno 911
Season 1, Episode 3
This show is like a spoof of the TV show COPS. Sometimes I find it really corny but other times I can’t stop laughing.

Knight Rider
Season 2, Episode 3
KITT was really pimped out. He had a built in video game system, GPS navigation, video conferencing, Nitros, night vision, voice activation… some really high tech stuff..

Desperate Housewives
Season 2, Episode 15
Its not as fun as season 2 but doing a hell of a lot better then Lost (read below)

Lost
Season 2, Episode 15
I have no clue why I am still watching this crap. Season 2 has been a disaster, the show has become extremely lame, boring, uneventful and repetetive. What started off as one of the most exciting shows ever has taken a 180 degree turn for the worst. Total crap.

Curb Your Enthusiam
Season 1, Episode 8
Larry Davids charactar is a mixture of Jerry Seinfeld and George Costanza. He’s a bit weird at first but you get used to him.

Weeds
Season 1, Episode 10
This show started off boring but it started getting really good around episode 3. Its about a school mum who starts dealing weed to make some money. First season is only 10 episodes and now I have to wait till July for season 2, I can’t wait.

Update: I added Weeds, don’t know how I forgot about it.

I was thinking, wouldn’t it be cool if Geo (our dog) worked during the day like me and Nat? He is naturally a herding dog so he could end up working on a farm or something. It would be cool, I could drop him off to work in the morning on the way to my office, when I am done I could pick him up and bring him home with me. He could spend the day working on the farm herding the sheep and earning some cash which he could use to spend it on whatever he wants. It would also keep him entertained and active. Ofcourse I am not being serious here but it is a cool idea..

I have had a 17inch Powerbook with me now for a couple of days and I have to say I really hate it. I hate it so much that I am sitting here typing this post on an old clamshell ibook. I tried using the Powerbook but its just too huge and uncomfortable to use while lying down on the couch. I really tried to like it but I wasn’t able to and I kept falling back on my clamshell for my browsing. Too bad, I really liked the high resolution screen.