2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Because the rail underneath the car isn’t damaged it looks like the car was picked up and just placed over it gently.

Thanks Patrick

If you’ve never been to a Cinemagic rooftop screening then this would be the perfect month to do so since the weather really doesn’t get any better than this (when it’s not dusty). Also this month they’re playing some great movies with my favorite being Goodbye Lenin! Check out the full schedule below:

Thursday, November 10th at 7:30pm
GOODBYE LENIN!
In 1990, to protect his fragile mother from a fatal shock after a long coma, a young man must keep her from learning that her beloved nation of East Germany as she knew it has disappeared.

Saturday, November 12th at 7:30pm
DOG DAY AFTERNOON
A man robs a bank to pay for his lover’s operation; it turns into a hostage situation and a media circus.

Thursday, November 17th at 7:30pm
COLONY
Several beekeepers around the U.S. cope with colony collapse disorder – the phenomenon that has caused millions of bees to mysteriously disappear.

Saturday, November 19th at 7:30pm
WAKING LIFE
A man shuffles through a dream meeting various people and discussing the meanings and purposes of the universe.

Thursday, November 24th at 7:30pm
LA JETEE
Time travel, still images, a past, present and future and the aftermath of World War III. The tale of a man, a slave, sent back and forth, in and out of time, to find a solution to the world’s fate. To replenish its decreasing stocks of food, medicine and energies, and in doing so, resulting in a perpetual memory of a lone female, life, death and past events that are recreated on an airports jetée.

Thursday, November 24th at 7:30pm
SANS SOLEIL
“He wrote me….” A woman narrates the thoughts of a world traveler, meditations on time and memory expressed in words and images from places as far-flung as Japan, Guinea-Bissau, Iceland, and San Francisco.

Saturday, November 26h at 7:30pm
ALICE
A surrealist re-visioning of Alice in Wonderland.

Cinemagic Kuwait, is organizing these events as part of its efforts to contribute to the development of an internationally competitive Kuwaiti audio-visual production industry, partly by bringing the filmmakers and audiences together and by Increasing the public’s interest in – and appreciation for – the art of film-making. Cinemagic movies are screened in the old Salmiya, on the roof on top of Alghanim Electronics and LG. Entrance is free of charge and includes refreshments, popcorn and much more. Here is a link to their Facebook group [Link]

Picture above is before the roundabout was built. You actually drove through the gate! [Source]

This is the best thing to happen to the airport since they shutdown McDonalds. They’re opening them all in place of Costa right after immigration.

Back in April I posted about the popular Japanese thrash metal band UNITED that features Kuwaiti Faisal Al-Salem as their lead singer. Well Faisal just emailed me telling me they just finished playing at the Loud Park 11 event which also featured Limp Bizkit and White Snake. He sent me the video above of his band playing and I think it looks pretty fracking crazy. [YouTube]

The new Kuwait Science Club offroad RC track just got completed and it looks incredible. I’m going to be out of the country this weekend so I’m only going to get to try it out next week. Only 1/8 scale truggies and buggies are allowed on the track which is located near the Kuwait Science Club behind 360 Mall. [Link]

There is this building behind the old souk in Kuwait City that didn’t look like much today but I always imagined it when it was first constructed and how beautiful it must have looked back then. You can’t tell in this picture but it had a nice retro design with a great looking base structure that gave the building a look like it was lifted up in the air with pillars. I noticed the building has now been vacated and I’m really hoping it’s getting renovated and not demolished. There’s some great looking architecture that really needs to be refurbished and brought back to life.

According to Arabian Business, Kuwait is raising the bar and aims to generate 10 percent of its electricity from sustainable sources by 2020. All I have to say is it’s about time. With our sunny cloudless skies all year round, solar energy is the way to go. Next stop should be replacing all the heavily polluting buses with electric running ones and it should be pretty easy to do. [Link]

I’ve been taking the Gulf Road to work everyday now for 7 years. The only time it’s ever been packed with bumper to bumper traffic has been during the first two days at the start of “some” Ramadans (not all). But for some strange odd reason, today for the third time in two weeks the Gulf Road has been bumper to bumper traffic. A 20 minute ride to work is now out of the blue taking 45 minutes and I have no idea why. No roads have been closed, there aren’t any new diversions and it’s not accidents. It’s just random traffic that shouldn’t be.

Earlier in the month I posted about my quest to find a good car cam, a camera I can use to record what’s happening on the road while I drive. My thinking was I might one day capture something interesting that I could later upload onto YouTube and post about on the blog. I was looking for something affordable with decent video footage and after a bit of research I was leaning towards the Muvi Micro camera. A reader then pointed out that X-Cite were selling the same brand so I emailed my contact and managed to get 3 cameras sent over to review.

Muvi Micro Pro vs Muvi Atom
I’m going to start the review comparing these two cameras since they are priced similarly and offer nearly the same quality footage. Both these cameras are extremely small, if you look at the picture on the top of the page, they’re the two tiny cameras in that photo. The Atom is the smaller of the two and comes with slightly more accessories but both come with the very important clip. The clip snaps on to the back of the cameras and you can then clip them anywhere including your rear view mirror (if it’s not very thick).

Both these cameras don’t do HD but at this price point and with this physical size I wasn’t expecting them to. The video footage from both cameras is practically identical in terms of quality. The only difference I found is that the Micro Pro’s footage was slightly sharper when compared side by side with the Atom. But, the Micro Pro also has an annoying time-stamp that’s imprinted on the bottom of the video which killed it for me. Battery life for both these cameras is not that great, the Micro Pro lasts for around 90 minutes while the Atom just 45. On the bright side they both can be powered by USB and record while charging at the same time.

If I had to choose between the two I would most likely go for the Atom just for the fact that it doesn’t have the time-stamp on the video. The footage from both the cams aren’t that great but for YouTube they should work out fine as you can see in the sample videos below. I uploaded two videos shot simultaneously so you could compare the quality of the footage between the two cameras. I start off the video in an underground parking lot so you could see the low light performance and then I’ve got outdoor footage after that.

Veho Muvi Pro Sample Footage
Veho Muvi Atom Sample Footage

Muvi HD Pro
The HD Pro is larger than the other two cameras but it’s really not that big, it’s just that the other two that are really small which is why the HD Pro looks more bulky. Unlike the other two cameras the HD Pro has an LCD screen so you can actually see what you’re shooting instead of just aiming and hoping for the best. The HD Pro also shoots full HD (1080p) and has a battery that lasts up to 3 hours. So that’s three major advantages over the other two. The camera also comes with a ton of accessories most of which are mounting adapters including a windshield mount. You’re paying for all these extra features and accessories though since the HD Pro is double the price of the other two cameras. There is a more affordable option called the HD10+ which is the same camera but comes with less accessories and the price ends up falling between the HD Pro and the other two cameras.

Check out the comparison videos below between the HD Pro and the Muvi Pro.

Veho Muvi Pro Sample Footage
Veho HD Pro Sample Footage

Originally I was leaning towards geting the Muvi Micro from Amazon (a step down from the Micro Pro featured here) but after seeing the difference in quality between the Micro Pro and the HD Pro I realized it’s better to spend and get the best quality footage I could afford. With that mindset I ended up ordering the Contour+ which I’ll post about once I test it out. If you’re looking for an affordable camera to shoot video with while driving, walking (you can clip the Micro and Atom to your pants) or maybe mounting it on your RC car, then these cameras are worth looking into.

All the camera’s in this review were supplied by Alghanim and their prices are listed below: (They’re more expensive than Amazon)

Veho HD Pro KD89
Veho Muvi HD10+ KD69
Veho Atom KD40
Veho Muvi Micro Pro KD39

Loving
Parks and Recreation
The Office
Boardwalk Empire
Breaking Bad
Modern Family
The Walking Dead
American Dad
Homeland
Boss
Party Down

Enjoying
American Horror Story
The Ultimate Fighter
American Chopper Senior vs Junior
House (barely on this list)
Family Guy
Chasing Classic Cars
Up All Night

Watching when I have nothing else to watch
Pan Am
90210
Terra Nova
Dexter
The Simpsons
Cleavland Show
Falling Skies
Kitchen Nightmares

Bored of and hating
Grey’s Anatomy
Desperate Housewives
Persons of Interest
How I met your mother
Hawaii Five-O
CSI (all of them)
Rules of Engagement

Still need to watch or get back into
Bored to Death
Wilfred
It’s always sunny in Philadelphia
How to make it in America
Friday Night Lights

Not a fan of
Fringe
The Big Bang Theory
Two and a half men
Supernatural
Community

Note: This is a list of current shows I’m watching or are running which is why you won’t find Louie, Entourage, Mad Men, Weeds, True Blood, Game of Thrones, Eastbound And Down, Suits etc..

[YouTube]

Magic ball magic ball are we going to start seeing these on the Gulf Road?

Kuwait Black Market spotted the Walls brand ice cream at Geant in 360 Mall. I remember someone telling me ages ago that Walls ice cream was banned in Kuwait because the Walls logo upside down read as “Allah” in Arabic. Kinda like those Nike Air shoes back in the 90’s that were also banned because the way “Air” was written also looked like “Allah”.

I guess the Walls thing was just an urban legend and now we can all enjoy our Magnum ice cream. [Link]

Digumz is a local video game rental website which I posted about back in March. Three weeks ago I decided to sign up and try them out and I’m really loving them so far.

Registration was a pretty simple procedure and I had two options for payment, K-net but I would have to leave a deposit or credit card and no deposit. I opted for the credit card payment and once the account was setup proceeded to order my first game. I went with Gears of War 3 and they managed to deliver it the same evening. They drop off the games and pick them up when you’re done and there are no delivery charges which is fantastic.

Their website is really easy to use and practical. Ordering a game is pretty simple and quick. You flip through their site, find a game you want and then click on the “Rent Now” button and it will be added to the queue list. If you don’t have anything on that list the game will be dispatched to you immediately. You could then continue to add games to your queue list and arrange them according to your priorities.

When you want to swap a game you go to your “Games I have” list and click on the “request game exchange” button and the next game on your list gets dispatched. In case your first choice isn’t available they will dispatch your second, if the second isn’t available the third and on and on.

Now there really aren’t any negatives, at least not for me since when I signed up their prices started at KD7 a month. For that price I can rent as many games as I want per month but only 1 game at a time. A couple of weeks back though they increased their prices and now the most affordable package starts at KD15. Lucky for me and everyone who signed up before the price increase, our memberships will continue to be renewed at KD7 a month which is great. At KD15 a month I don’t think I would have signed up since I am probably going to be renting only 1 game a month. For KD15 a month I might as well buy a game a month instead of renting. If you are planning to rent at least two games then KD15 a month would make more financial sense. They also have other packages in which you could rent more than a game a month but of course those packages also cost more.

Here is the link to the Digumz website [Link]
They also have another website where they sell games, here is the link to that website [Link]

At KD7 a month I’m really loving Digumz.