2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Not sure if this happened here in Kuwait or Saudi Arabia but it’s not important since it’s still funny. [YouTube]

How the hell did Magic Mike XXL not make the ban list in Kuwait? Cinescape have it listed as coming soon which doesn’t make any sense since the movie is all about male strippers. How long is the movie going to end up being after all the censorship, a full 5 minutes? So weird.

A 16-year-old Kuwaiti boy died after he received a fatal stab wound during a fight at 360 Mall on Thursday night. The teenager succumbed to his injuries – a stab wound in his chest and lung as soon as he arrived at the Mubarak Hospital. Another 16-year-old Kuwaiti boy was injured in the fight and has been admitted to the hospital.

He is in stable condition. Meanwhile, police reportedly identified the suspect; a Kuwaiti teenager with history of criminal activity, and a security source expects the Interior Ministry to announce his arrest ‘within hours.’ Security had been tightened at the local malls following the killing of a Kuwaiti youngster in Marina Mall in 2013, and a similar incident in which a dentist was stabbed to death during a fight in The Avenues in 2012. [Source]

Originally I had read he was in his 20s so I’m surprised to find out he was actually just 16. Thats so young…

Last week I was having brunch with a friend at Cheesecake Factory in Avenues when I spotted two kids on drift boards playing around. My friend hadn’t seen one before but I had a couple of weeks earlier when I was in LA. I didn’t really know what they were or what they were called but the way the kids were going at it, it looked like it was a lot of fun. So I turned to my friend and told her I needed to find out who the dealer in Kuwait was so I could get one to review. Not exaggerating, literally less than 5 minutes later I get an email from a company called ClaroTek who were introducing a drift board to the Kuwaiti market and wanted to see if I would be interested in trying it out. I looked over at my friend and I was like you won’t believe this but guess what…

I ended up meeting the guy and picking up the Cybord drift board later that day. He gave me a brief background on the Cybord as well as instructions on how to use it and once we were done meeting I went back home to try it out. Getting on the drift board the first time is freaky, your first aim obviously is not to fall off but that requires you to put all your trust into a Chinese made device that you’ve never used before. That makes the first couple of minutes the most difficult but once you’re up on the board and moving around the learning curve quickly speeds up and within 5 minutes you’re riding around as if you’ve been doing it for months. The device is very intuitive and requires very little body movement to work which is why when you watch people on it you wonder how they’re controlling it. Thats because to move all you need to do is press down on your toes gently, if you want to turn right you just push slightly more on your right toe, if you want to stop you flatten your feet, to move back you move some weight towards your heels. It’s all done with very minor movements.

These things can also go pretty fast, the Cybord can go up to 12km/h and has a battery that will make it last 15-20km. The whole thing also weighs just 10KG. There are many different brands of the drift board and they all look exactly the same. What sets ClaroTek apart from the rest of the competitors in the local market is that they’ll be selling them at Xcite and will have AAA warranty which basically covers accidental damage amongst other things. That’s why ClaroTek chose Samsung batteries for the Cybord, to increase the reliability of the device.

[YouTube]

After using the Cybord for a week, this is what I think. I can’t believe they’ve managed to take the Segway and squeeze it down to the size of a skateboard. The technology is impressive and compared to the Segway, the drift boards are really cheap. Riding it is a lot of fun but my favorite use for it was pacing up and down my apartment while chatting on my phone which brings me to the issue I have with these boards, I wouldn’t know where to use them. As a kid it’s a no brainer, kids will love riding and playing with the drift board and they wouldn’t mind doing it in public because they’re kids. As an adult it’s different, first of all you’re bound to look like a douche riding around on one of these things in public like say a mall. And if you’re not riding it inside malls where else would you ride them? Kuwait doesn’t exactly have fantastic sidewalks and when they do not all the sidewalks have the wheelchair slopes so you’re going to end up getting off and on the device a lot. The only outdoor places I could think of riding the boards is the Gulf Road sidewalks but I’d rather walk, cycle or run them not cruise up and down on an electronic board. On the other hand ClaroTek were telling me they sold a bunch to a company who have a huge warehouse and so they will be used by their employees to move around quicker. That to me makes a lot more sense than riding around Avenues.

The Cybord will be available at Xcite soon but you can preorder one right now from the ClaroTek website. They come in four colors and they will be selling them for KD229 including the 1 year AAA warranty. Here is a link to their website with all the details [Link]

Now since I don’t have any use for the review unit I’ve decided to give it away to a lucky winner. If you’re interested in winning the Cybord just answer the following question in the comments: What is the name of the company that gave me the review unit?

Rules: The comments will be closed tonight. Winner will have to pick up the Cybord. Only one entry per person and please make sure you use a working email since the winner will be contacted by email. If winner doesn’t respond, another winner will be randomly chosen.

Update: I closed the posts for comments at 6AM. I used random.org to choose the winner and it’s comment #102 by V. Email has been sent, if winner doesn’t respond in 24 hours a second winner will be chosen.

Chloe Khan caused a lot of controversy last month when photos and videos of her inside the Kuwait Airways cockpit went viral. She’s now released a video where she talks about what took place in the cockpit and it just feels very surreal, like it’s an episode of TOWIE where Kuwait Airways is featured. [YouTube]

Kuwait has suspended home delivery licences in a bid to reduce traffic in the crammed capital.

The Interior Ministry is preparing to regulate home delivery services because it requires too many vehicles to be on the roads, Kuwait Times said. [Source]

Here’s one more last funny article for the day but this time I’m also gonna share my friends rant below (who’s Kuwaiti by the way for those of you who want to tell him to get the fuck out).

Yes, Kuwait, keep chipping away at our quality of life instead of doing anything serious to remedy the dire situation of our roads.

Metro? Let’s keep delaying that indefinitely… Because, you know, talking about it since the 1970s has brought us that much closer to realizing it.

Public transportation reforms? Forget that, bus drivers seem to drive with contempt and face it, who would want to ride one of those dilapidated deathtraps?

New highways? With an average completion time of seven years for a stretch of a few short kilometers and haphazardly-marked diversions, you might as well do nothing at all.

License regulation? Please, with rampant nepotism and string-pulling guaranteeing that every untrained moron with a pulse gets one, I don’t believe shit. Just take it all out on the expats the way you normally do, government.

Funny as it is, I’m dreading going back to Kuwait almost purely because of the road situation. People seem to actively disregard the rules and do things their own way because they know that our hilariously inept police force isn’t going to do jack about it except pass unimplemented law after unimplemented law, we have over 1.5 million cars on a road network with a carrying capacity of around seven hundred thousand vehicles, round-the-clock traffic ensures that what should be a ten-minute trip takes at least an hour, there’s no emission control or any form of environmental regulation and my chances of being killed because of someone else’s idiocy are exacerbated to the nth degree.

For a country with the potential and resources to make something absolutely incredible of itself, it’s moments like this that make me want to facepalm until my face bleeds.

– Khaled

Update: According to the news article on the Ministry of Commerce website, the ban is temporary and only because the MOI are currently overburdened with requests [Source]. So it looks like Kuwait Times are making shit up. Also it looks like Arabian Business is now making shit up because their source (Kuwait Times) never mentioned anything about traffic being the reason for the ban.

“According to the lawyer, some of the material that people posted Thursday when Snapchat went live in Kuwait City under the hashtag #KuwaitCityLive were offensive and ‘damages’ the country’s image. The lawyer did not elaborate on the nature of the offensive snaps,” the paper reported.

I swear it wasn’t me… [Link]

Yesterday I got an email from the owner of a business called Live Sketchbook inviting me to check out her place in Avenues. She described it as a 4D interactive park for kids and although kids stuff never interest me, I was curious to what a 4D interactive park was so I asked her if she had some photos. She emailed me a few and as soon as I saw them I headed over to Avenues to check the place out in person.

Live Sketchbook is a small space located up escalators #20 in Grand Avenues (right next to Muji). It’s a space for kids to come and spend time playing around with one of five different activities they have including:

– A Live Mask station which is a screen you sit in front of and the computer will combine your face with one of an animal of your choice resulting in a creepy/realistic outcome.
– 3D sketching tablets
– A reading corner
– A live mirror in which when you stand in front of will have realistic looking animals walk next to you
– And finally the star of the place, the Live Sketchbook

The Live Sketchbook occupies the majority of the space in the shop and it’s composed of a bunch of touch screens laid out in front of a large wall that has animated illustrations projected onto it. Kids can get on one of the touch screens, open up a coloring book, choose an animal of their choice and then color it in digitally using the onscreen crayons. Once they’re done they can then cut out their animal and flick it up their screen. When they do that their illustrated animal will fly off their screen and onto the animated wall in front of them where their illustration will join the other illustrations on the wall. If that alone wasn’t cool enough the kids can then go up to the wall and interact with their sketch by having it bounce around every time they touch it. I tried it out with a lion I colored in and found it fun so I’m sure kids are going to find it very cool as well.

According to the owner she brought the Live Sketchbook concept from Korea and has the exclusive rights for the brand in the region. I found a video of the Live Sketchbook online which you could check out above to give you a better idea of how it works. They’re going to be soft launching next week and it will cost KD10 for the full day and kids can leave and come back as many times as they want during the day. If you’re interested to find out more, here is a link to their Instagram account [Link]

Kuwait’s General Traffic Department (GTD) is reportedly considering enforcing the law that bans motorists smoking inside their vehicles while driving.

The decision is part of the ministry’s strategy to curb road accidents, with smoking while driving considered one of the major causes of accidents in Kuwait, Al-Seyassah Daily reported.

This sounds like a lame April Fools joke. [Link]

I heard through the grapevine that Five Guys are opening their first location in Kuwait at Al Tijaria Tower in the city. I passed by yesterday to see if I could find a coming soon hoarding and didn’t find one, but I did find a large location in the basement that was under construction. Five Guys already opened in Dubai back in May and so it makes sense that we are next in line.

[YouTube]

The Kuwait to London guys which I posted about last year are doing a Kuwait to Paris trip this year. Last year we got a ton of great videos (check here and here) but so far this year I’ve only seen the one above which was taken off a German news broadcast.

Based on the route displayed on the side of one of the guys car, they started their journey from Turkey and will drive through Europe all the way to Paris, then up to London, then back down to Spain before crossing the Mediterranean Sea and ending their journey in Morocco.

If anyone comes across more videos please send them to me.

Escape games are adventurous group games where each group is locked in a themed room and have 60 minutes to solve the mystery. Back in June I posted about one called Room of Clues thats located in Kuwait City but there is a new one opening up in Symphony Mall in Salmiya and it’s supposed to be the largest facility in the region. They started taking bookings yesterday and the prices range depending on how many people you are but generally they’re around KD10 per person and up. The most interesting aspect is that I counted six different type of games available to play which means if you take part in one escape and like it, you could come back and play one of the other games.

[YouTube]

Trapped Inn opens on September 2nd and if you’re interested in finding out more or booking a game you visit their website [Here]

One of my favorite brunch places Street have expanded their Saturday morning brunch menu with a lot of new items. Under their “Egg” category they’ve now have Shakshuka and they’ve also created a new category called “Toast” where they’ve added a bunch of new items as well. I had the shakshuka and honestly didn’t like it so I’m going to continue sticking with my favorites, the egg shroom bao or the ribs & egg. Check out the new menu over [Here]

A couple of weeks back I was talking to a friend who had recently posted on the blog and they were irritated by a reader who had complained about their writing style. I was like yeah thats one complaint, now imagine that on a daily basis for over 10 years because thats what I have to deal with. I’ve been blogging for over ten years now and I don’t think a single day has gone by without me getting some kind of hate from a reader.

In the beginning I used to get really bothered and take things personally but over the years I’ve just grown immune to all the hate comments. I’ve basically heard everything, or I thought I did until I got a divorce a few years ago. Some asshole started coming in and leaving hate comments on the blog and signing off with “No wonder Nat left you”. First time I read that I was like WTF, why would anybody be so mean? It hurt reading it the first couple of times but then again I just became immune to it like everything else. And it’s not only from readers, I’ve gotten hate from business owners as well. There is one I have saved on my phone because it’s so mean it’s funny. A girl emailed me and wanted me to post about her cupcake businesses. I replied back to her politely thanking her for contacting me but my readers wouldn’t find a post on a cupcake business interesting. She ended up leaving the comment below on her Facebook status (a friend in common sent me the screenshot)

That’s from a girl who sells cupcakes and has a cute cat as her Facebook profile picture. WTF.

Yesterday I got a bunch of hate in my post about snapchat broadcasting Kuwait live today because some people were upset at me because I was thinking of snapchatting all the garbage in my neighborhood. They weren’t upset about the garbage, they were upset at me wanting to snapchat it.

I tweeted yesterday how I tend to start off most of my replies to people as “Go fuck yourself” and I wasn’t kidding. Thats how I tend to start off my replies but then I send a screenshot to my best friend who usually replies no Mark thats not appropriate and I end up trying to respond more decently to people. But how much more of this do I have to take?

I’ve grown immune to these negative comments or at least I think I have but what is the long term effects of all this bullying on a subconscious level? Emotionally I’ve been told by some people I’m like a robot, I’m not sure if I’ve always been like this or if I’ve become like this after a decade of daily verbal abuse by people. Does it affect my self esteem? Do I get angry quickly because of it? When people keep telling me to get the fuck out of Kuwait, does it make me resent Kuwait? I’m not really sure, I don’t know how deeply all the daily bullying has effected me but I’ve finally decided I don’t want this anymore. I love the blog and I love my readers but I’m done with this.

Over the weekend I will be thinking of different solutions to this problem and one option might be to permanently shut down the comments on the blog. One of my favorite blogs Daring Fireball did that way back and he doesn’t regret it. I think I have some of the smartest and most intelligent readers in Kuwait and I learn so much from the comments every day, but I also don’t want to deal with the negative aspect of the comments anymore.

Got talent? If yes then check out the competition below.

Together with Art Jameel, Crossway Foundation has recently launched an open call to find talented young artists, photographers, filmmakers and designers aged 18-25 in the UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UK.

Eight winners will have the opportunity to travel to Japan in November 2015 where they will experience one of the most inspiring cultures in the world. Kuwaiti visual artist, Monira Al Qadiri, has been appointed Artistic Lead, and will mentor the winners during their time in Japan.

To enter the competition, applicants must complete an application form on the Crossway Foundation website: www.crossway-foundation.org

Applicants must submit a creative project that relates to the theme: “Encounters with another World.” The project can either be pre-existing artwork or devised especially for the competition. The deadline for the competition is 15 September 2015.