Category: Personal

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.

Yesterday my PSP arrived at my US mailbox. Now I am just waiting for them to ship it to Kuwait. I can’t believe I have to wait the whole weekend to get the PSP. I have two major worries. One, I will have problems with the local customs since it seems Sony, Panasonic and some other dealers in Kuwait have made a pact with the custom authorities, and any of their products are usually not allowed into Kuwait. The second worry I have is dead pixels. Dead pixels are pixels on the screen that don’t change color. This means if the whole screen is black for example the dead pixel might show as a green dot on the screen. 1 dead pixel isn’t a major problem but I have read about people getting a full row or dead pixels! The suspense is killing me.

I am gonna disconnect my internet now and go to shownet and finally cancel it. I might be back on tonight with a regular dial up but I dont see how 3.6kb split among 5 computers on my network is gonna do me any good.

Ok I noticed I am turning 2:48AM into a videogame blog bit by bit with all these PSP posts, I think I need to find other things to talk about…

I think my Sony Ericsson T630 is dying. This past week while talking to people on my phone I was hearing crackling sounds. Yesterday while talking to Nibaq he told me he was also hearing the crackling sounds on his side. So yesterday night I went into the “Service Tests” menu (From main screen press > * < < * < *) and I did the mic test and as I had expected all I was hearing was the crackling sound. Seems the mic on the phone is fucked. Now I don't know what to do. I am soo bored of all the phones in the market. I don't like Nokia, I hate the samsung brand, siemens are interesting but the phones they have which I like don't have bluetooth. Motorolla also have interesting phones but even the ones with bluetooth don't work with my mac and pda the way they should. So that leaves Sony Ericsson. My past 4 or 5 phones were all Sony Ericssons. They work best with my Mac (isync) which is the most important thing I look for in a phone. But there is no SE phone that interests me now. The S700 is cool but big and expensive. The P series I dislike because of their Symbian Os. That leaves me with the K700, which is probably what I will go with. I think I should be able to find it for a decent price now. If it turns out to be more then what I want to pay I will definitely find a second hand like new condition one for a lot cheaper. I am so bored with phones...

A while back, me and Nibaq were talking about the days of Qhate. We were talking about the different roles each of us played in that blog and how those days seemed so far away. Then I realized something, Qhate was me, him and rampurple. Each one of us now has his and her own blog. We have all gone solo and each has his own separate project going on. We have become like the group New Edition. What if 3 of us decided to come back together into 1 blog?