2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Last month I posted an email by a 27 year old Kuwaiti girl who wrote about how the one thousand Kuwaiti Dinars grant would make a difference in her life. The girl has a birth defect (severe overbite) and she was saving up to get the operation done because she wasn’t able to get any help from the public health care since no one knew what to do with her and they just kept bouncing her around in a circle from one person to the other. Well thankfully a dentist working in the government sector read her message and was able to contact her, diagnose her and send her to the right doctor. She is now scheduled for two operations and this is the update she emailed me:

First of all i would like to thank Mark for posting my story and thank everyone for their support, the comments were so overwhelming and made me cry.

I have been contacted by a doctor who is not a doctor at all but an angel, he helped set up a meeting with a surgeon and he even came with me and took care of everything.

The boring details are that my case is so bad that they need to break both of my jaws, not only one, and I will be needing a pre-operation to help set up my condition for the main operation. All of this will take months of work, but at least I am on the right track now.

I don’t like to talk much because each time I do everything comes out of my mouth wrong, I prefer writing instead and this puts me in awkward situations many times and I hope I don’t offend anyone or say rude things especially to the kind amazing doctor who is helping me now. He is being so sweet and kind and giving me some of his time to help me get through this.

There were times where I felt like a burden, and wanted to call it off just because I don’t want to get anyone involved and annoyed by my condition, but I need this, I really need this. I am suffering almost everyday and I want it to stop.

I really appreciate everyone who tried to help me and everyone who emailed Mark. Thank you so much. AlI I need now is your prayers for this pain to stop and for my operations to be easy and painless.

Thank you so much.

In case you missed the original post here is the [Link]

I noticed one of the over sized clocks on the roads had something the other ones didn’t. If you check the picture above you can see 3 black squares underneath the clock, those are going to be lane status indicators. Basically it will probably show a green circle (O) or arrow for open and a red X for closed. I’ve seen those used mostly in tunnel entrances but I guess they will be using them here during emergencies like accidents.

I just saw a post on Confashions about an art auction that was held in the still under construction Phase III of the Avenues. The place looks great and the artwork looked amazing but sadly the public exhibition of the work was on February 8th and the auction was last night. Luckily Confashions took some pictures which you can check [Here]

I’ve updated the navigation bar on top and added two new sections, Events and Activities. The events page basically will contain things to do in Kuwait but things that are time sensitive like exhibitions, movie screenings etc.. Activities on the other hand will include things to do in Kuwait through out the year like scuba diving, karting etc..

Whatever gets posted under these two sections will continue to get posted on the main page as well but since items move down and off the main page pretty quickly, these two links will make it easier to find things.

Awhile back my MacBook was starting to feel sluggish and I was really tempted to buy a newer model but since I was just using the laptop to get online from the couch or for when I travel, I didn’t think it was worth buying a new laptop. Instead, I decided to upgrade my MacBook from a 2.5inch 5400rpm 250GB hard drive to a 64GB SSD.

What is SSD? SSD stands for solid-state drive and to keep it simple its just a hard drive with no moving parts and is around 5 times faster than regular notebook hard drives. I ordered the ADATA 64GB drive from Amazon since based on my research I found it had the best bang for the buck. I also looked at two other brands before deciding on ADATA which were OCZ Technology and Crucial Technology, both of which have extremely fast performance drives but at a slightly more expensive cost.

I could easily review the drive in just 7 words: “It makes all other computers feel slow”. It cut down the boot time of my MacBook to less than half and it also sped up the launch time of all the applications. For example it now takes 1 second to launch Photoshop while other applications like Safari and Microsoft Word launch practically instantly. No waiting or spinning colored wheel just click and they’re open. The SSD drive not only brought new life to my aging MacBook but for day to day use it made it feel a lot faster than all my other computers including my already very fast iMac and Mac Pro.

I got the 64GB SSD and not something larger because the prices became tooooo expensive with the larger drives. For example a 256GB SSD would cost you around $500 which is nearly half the price of a brand new MacBook! The 64GB drive on the other hand cost me around KD35 with shipping to Kuwait and after installing the OS and ALL my software I still had 40GB of free space left. That’s more than I need since I just use my MacBook to surf the web, edit some pictures and for traveling. If you’re planning on storing media like your photo or music library than I highly doubt 64GB would be enough.

I would definitely recommend everyone pick up an SSD drive if you can, it really makes a HUGE difference. But, if you need a large drive and are not in a rush, the longer you wait the cheaper the prices will get. Here is the Amazon link to the hard drive I got [Link]

After dropping off the Vespa over the weekend I picked up the Italian made Piaggio MP3 and looking at the picture you will straight away notice that this bike is in fact a trike since it has two wheels in the front and one in the back. It’s a strange and futuristic looking scooter that to me could have been perfect if it wasn’t for two annoyances which I will discuss later.

The MP3 has a few features I liked which the Vespa didn’t, first of all it shows me the outside temperature on the digital display. This was actually important the past few days since I wanted to know how much I was freezing my ass off. Secondly it had a large front windscreen which helped block the wind from my upper body which played a crucial role in keeping me warm during the cold mornings. Finally and most importantly it had three wheels! The three wheels were a bit strange to get used to at first but they quickly grew on me. They offer better grip on the road specially when it’s wet and the MP3 felt a lot more stable at high speeds and when running over potholes. It also brakes a lot better than a regular two wheeled bike. In one incident I was riding in the left lane on the Gulf Road when the car in front of me decided to slam the brakes and make an illegal u-turn (seriously wtf?!) I quickly slammed the brakes and swerved into the middle lane and managed to avoid him. Later I realized if I was on a two wheeled bike I would very probably have slid the bike doing that. The scooter can also hit highways speeds easily so you can take this onto the ring roads and not worry about being too slow. As you can see in the video above it also has a lot of storage space.

Now that I got all the good stuff out of the way here are the negatives. There are three issues I found, 2 being major. The first minor problem is the fact that the scooter isn’t as nimble as the Vespa in parked traffic. The MP3 is a heavy scooter and a big one so weaving around parked cars in traffic is a lot more difficult. But that’s a minor issue. The two major issues I have with the MP3 relate to comfort. I found the MP3’s seat uncomfortable. I’m 6’1 and so I found the seat a bit low for my height and it also felt like it was tilted forward. The Vespa on the other hand was extremely comfortable and made me want to spend more time on the bike while the seat on the MP3 was giving me a wedgie the whole time. The second comfort related problem I faced was with the foot rest. The right footrest of the MP3 had a foot brake that activates all three brakes of the bike at once. I didn’t feel comfortable using the foot pedal so I had to place my big feet behind it which resulted in very little and cramped leg room.

So although I was really impressed with the MP3, the two comfort issues were a major let down specially since this is a scooter I would easily have considered for long trips. The Piaggio MP3 I rode was a 400cc and costs around KD2,800. They have a 250cc version for cheaper as well. If you’re interested here is the link to the Bike World website [Link]

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Note: If you are a company and have an interesting product you want me to review (bikes, cars, gadgets, whatever) then email me. Reviews are for free. I get content to post while you get publicity, here is the [Contact Form]. I must be allowed to post a positive or negative review!

Some great looking lounges like the one above which looks like a recreational area on a Star Trek starship is the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse at London Heathrow Airport. [Link]

EA is selling a large chunk of its games for a dollar a piece for a limited time. I play a ton of games on my iPhone and iPad so I think this is a pretty good deal if it wasn’t for the fact I already own most of them. Here are the games on sale:

iPhone/iPod touch games
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Mirror’s Edge
Tetris
SimCity Deluxe
Pictureka!
The Simpsons Arcade
Need For Speed Hot Pursuit
Need For Speed Undercover
Need For Speed Shift
The Sims 3
The Sims 3 World Adventures
The Sims 3 Ambitions
Monopoly
Monopoly Here & Now: The World Edition
Scrabble
Risk: The Official Game
The Game of Life Classic Edition
FIFA 11
FIFA 10
NBA Elite 11
NCAA Football
Madden NFL 11

iPad games:
Reckless Racing HD
Pictureka! for iPad
Snood for iPad
Yahtzee HD
Clue: Secrets & Spies

Note: Make sure you’re logged in to the US store
Note2: If you don’t have a US account and want to create one click [Here]

As part of the National Day celebrations there will be an illusion show held at the ice skating rink. The show is called Abracadabra and according to the poster it’s the first illusion show to ever be held in Kuwait and it’s coming all the way from Las Vegas. There will be three magicians performing and they are Jay Mattioli who was a finalist on America’s Got Talent show, Peter Marvey a world champion illusionist and Vitor Voitko, the worlds greatest illusionist.

Date: February 22nd to February 24th
Time: 4:30pm to 6:00pm and 7:30pm to 9:00pm
Location: Ice Skating Rink, Kuwait City

For more information on tickets and the magicians visit the event website by following this [Link]

I love these old videos. [YouTube]

via boingboing

Aramex has activated the pay by credit card option for Kuwait customers. What this means is that you can now pay for your shipment online with your credit card. To do that you need to log in to your account on aramex.com and then click on “View” and then on the “Pay by credit card” button. Sadly you can’t pay the customs fees online just the shipping fees.

For those of you who don’t know what this service is, Aramex have a product called Shop & Ship in which for a fee they will open up a forwarding mailbox for you in the States. You can then shop online (amazon for example) and ship your packages to your US mailbox and Aramex will then ship it to Kuwait.

via vampire on 248PM

I thought Brett Jordan had finished scanning and uploading pictures his parents took when they were in Kuwait back in the 60s but I just noticed that he is still adding new pictures to his Flickr account. Check them out [Here]

You can get your fix of Super Bowl commercials with the following two links:

Devour – Hand chosen selection of some commercials
NFL Website – All 96 ads listed there

One of my favorites is the Chrysler commercial above. [YouTube]

Update: TIME has all the commercials up and rated, view them [Here]

Registration is now open for entry into the 6th annual dog show. The show will take place in the beautiful gardens of the British Embassy on Friday March 4th from 11AM to 4PM. There will be stalls at the dog show selling a variety of merchandise, activities for the children, refreshment stalls and of course the main attraction will be the competition categories of which there are 9 this year.

Full details can be found on the PAWS website and all competition categories are listed on the application form which can be downloaded from the website as well. Here is the [Link]

Found the video above on the His & Hers blog. [YouTube]