Category: Personal

Back in March I was trying to get Nat wasta because she needed a paper from the government saying she could get license. There is a law that says if you have been in Kuwait less then 2 years then you need special permission to get a license. A friend at work told me he knew someone who could get me the papers. So I gave him all of Nat’s papers and he took them and gave them to the guy. A week later the guy comes back and tells me the wasta wants a ticket to Egypt. I was like what? No way, I knew some other people who had offered to help for free, one of them was Nibaq. So I told the guy from work forget about it, get me the papers and I will find someone else to help. Next day he comes to the office he is like the wasta went ahead and did your papers, all he wants in return is a cheap phone. I was like OK thats not a problem, atleast the papers are signed.

I went and bought the wasta a Nokia 2600 for KD30 and sent it to him. The gift got rejected and I posted about it back then here. Turns out the wasta wanted a Nokia phone that costed around KD145. I told the guy at work that no way I was gonna pay KD145, I told him if the guy was also gonna get Nat her license then maybe I would. He was like the guy said he would help her out with the eye test. I told him she doesn’t need help in the eye test. The guy at work told me I was right forget about it.

Since that time till now every week a couple of times the guy at work keeps telling me the wasta is asking about his phone. Now past two days the guy at work is telling me the wasta is really pissed and he has been threatening him and crap. I told him what do you want me to do? He was like get him the phone. I was like no way why should I. He was like because he did the papers. I was like come on I told you not to do them anymore.

Anyway to summarize things, the wasta is threatening the guy from work, telling him he will do bad things to him and now the guy from work is scared and has been begging me all day to help me out. This situation is really pissing me off.

How I see it, its the fault of the guy from work. a) He should have gotten me the papers when I told him I didn’t want to get the guy the ticket. b) he shouldn’t have told me a cheap phone is what the guy wants. c) when the guy kept asking him when I was going to get him the phone he should have told him the story about how I was told a cheap phone would do and if its an expensive phone I didn’t want any help.

Am I right here?

I just got a phonecall from a creative director I used to work with. He is opening his own advertising agency here in Kuwait and he wants me to join him and help him build a team. In return I would get the same salary I am currently making and he will also make me a partner and give me 10% of the company and its earnings. He already has a major client waiting for us plus he has a deal with an international agecy. If that wasn’t enough, he wants nat and rampurple to join us.

All this and I think I will have to reject the offer. I am a very safe person. By that I mean I don’t take risks. I like routine and I like job security. I am also currently very happy with what I am doing. Ofcourse not everyday is a good day, there are ups and downs, but in general I am having fun where I am now. I am gonna meet with the guy tonight and get more details, I am wondering though if for once in my life I should just take the plunge and go for it..

I was just listening to some 80’s music and for a second I wished I was a kid again back in our old apartment listening to this music and didn’t have a single worry in the world. This got me thinking about something. Usually in videogames, when you finish the game all the previous levels you past through open up and you are free to navigate between them all. When we die will the same thing happen? Would our past open up and we would be able to travel through it all again? Wouldn’t it be cool if we could? Imagine going back to any time through out your life, fix things which you wished you could, do things you wished you did.. stuff like that. I think work is stressing me out.

Just realized today is 5-5-5. I actually wanted to get married on this date, sort of like when Dreamcast launched on 9-9-99, I would get married on 5-5-5.

I don’t get zits too often but I do get them. I usually get them after consuming large amounts of chocolate and last week me and nat finished a super sized nutella jar by ourselves. So, now I have a zit on my forehead and its been there for 2 days already. Anyone got any tips on how to get rid of one quickly? When I was in highschool in Canada (1994) I used to get a lot of zits and I used to use Oxy products to help get rid of them. But it would still have taken 5 days to vanish a zit. With todays technology I am hoping there is something faster like a pill you take and 6 hours later the zits are gone. Is there such a thing?

I was listening to VOA (96.9) over the weekend and this show started I forgot what it was called but basically it was a show where you would call in and give your feedback about VOA. I thought that was perfect, I could finally call in and complain about their stupid special english show, and how the way they say the news at night very slowly is such a stupid idea. So I pick up my phone and wait for them to give out their number when this guy from India calls in. The guy was blind, and he spent the next 10 minutes talking about how the special english show was the best and how it helped him learn English. He kept asking the announcer if his English was any good and the announcer would reply yeah its great, then the blind guy would say well this is all because of your show. Then he kept on going about how he loves the way they present the news with a vocabulary of only 1500 words and how it helps him and his friends improve their english. Anyway after all that bullshit I put my phone down, there was no way I was gonna call in after a blind man and complain about a show which helped him learn english. Just my luck, now I got to wait till next month when they air the show again to call in.

Ok, I just installed Tiger on my Mac at work and I am fucked. One of the most important softwares I have called Extensis Suitcase is not yet compatible with Tiger. This means that I am stuck with default fonts in softwares like Illustrator and Photoshop. Now I need to figure out how to go back to Panther… THIS SUCKS!

Update: Ok this is what I did to kinda solve my problem for now. I copied the fonts I need the most to Library>Application Support>Adobe>Fonts. Now my fonts work with my Adobe Products. I will keep checking the Extensis Suitcase Tiger Compatibility Chart everyday till they fix it.

I was having a discusion with K about the stuff we carry around with us all the time. He was telling me how if the PSP came with a 60GB drive we could drop the iPod. I went ahead and mentioned if the PSP also had PDA abilities I could drop my PDA. Basically it turns out we both carry a lot of gadgets with us. He carries the following with him: laptop / pda / phone / psp / ipod.

I carry the following with me always: camera / phone / psp / ipod / moleskine / 3 types of pens / swissarmy knife / keys / wallet / hand sanitizer / fresh mouth spray

What do you carry with you?

I am in such a bad mood now. I had an argument with 2 other creatives at the office. I was trying to explain to them that arabic typography is difficult and they wouldn’t get it. I have 3 logos I need to create arabic type for, they want it today. I explained to them that this isn’t an easy thing. It needs time. One of the creative insisted its an easy thing and doesn’t need time at all. I went ahead and explained to them that 2 of the 3 english logo-types I need to convert are located in a box. This causes problems with the arabic since the arabic typeface will have the letter “Ya” which will have dots that will fall below the baseline. This means the hight of the arabic type will be higher then the english. I can’t change the size of the box so that will be a problem. The guy wouldn’t listen and told me he would do it. I of-course refused since I am the best guy for this job and I would be afraid anyone else who attempts it will end up killing the logos. I really hate it when people don’t get it.

This weekend passed by so fucking quickly! I hate sundays also. I am at work now and I am still half asleep although I went to be at 11PM last night. Sucks.

“Mark notes that this is the second time Adobe has purchased Freehand.”

Fucking cool! [Link]

I just got an email today from File Magazine telling me another picture of mine was accepted to be part of their collection. The picture this time is one of my favorites and I called it “Mad Robot”. The building in the picture is of the Kuwait Stock Exchange and it was shot while sitting outside at Second Cup. Here is the picture on file magazine [Link]

I got a phone call from Osoul yesterday night. No it wasn’t because I wrote about their logo but it was because of another issue. Last year my best friend purchased some electronics and bought them using Osoul financing. A few months later my best friend leaves to Lebanon and passes away there. So naturally he can’t pay back the installments anymore because he is dead. Osoul don’t get that. I get a phone call from them at-least once a month asking me about my best friend and reminding me that he hasn’t paid the installments. It could be someone from Osoul, a lawyer, a collection office, all different people calling me and telling me the same crap over and over and every-time I have to tell them all that my best friend is dead.

So yesterdays call was the worst. A guy calls me up and asks me if I am mark, I am like yes, he was like your friend owes us some money and he has your name and number down as a reference (note: i wasn’t my friends guarantor). I was like yeah I know, you guys keep calling me and I keep telling you my friend is dead, he past away last August. The guy was like then send me his death certificate. I was like what the fuck?? No fucking way, I don’t have to send you anything, and stop fucking calling my number. He is like well he owes us money so you need to find a way to pay us back. I was like no I don’t, I don’t have to do anything for you, I am not a guarantor or anything. He was like yes but we have your number. I was like listen you fuck, I am not going to send you anything or do anything for you, don’t fucking call me again and I hung up the phone.

Unfucking believable how some people are. Till when will this go on? Will they ever stop calling me?

Since my new phone does not have bluetooth or GPRS anymore, I am going selling my Sony Clie PDA. The model version is UX-40. It has a 480×320 resolution screen, a keyboard with backlight, bluetooth with an option of upgrading to wifi, a built in VGA camera to capture pictures of videos, an excellent web browser, you chat on msn, use ftp, telnet, vnc whatever you want, it takes memorysticks, you can watch movies on it, its basically like a tiny PC. Out of 10 I would give my PDA a condition of 7. I am considering selling it for KD70 which is fairly similar to how much they are selling for on ebay, actually I think mine is even cheaper. I still have the box and manuals all in excellent condition. If you are interested contact me. Here are some pictures.

This is a repost

Just got back from a BBQ party. Its 11PM, we got there at 10. 1 hour is all I could handle. The party was at a friends place, a guy I have known since I was in highschool. A very nice guy that knows too many people. Me on the other hand I currently have 8 numbers on my phone, 4 of them are related to me. I am not a social person and I don’t like meeting new people. There were tons of cool looking people at the party, but making new friends takes time and effort, both things I lack. So an hour after coming to the party, me and nat got bored and left. An hour at the party is good, last time we went to a party at Hilton Resort, we left after 3 minutes.