2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Today I noticed Kuwait Times got redesigned. I used to really hate their old layout since it looked really outdated but the new design is the complete opposite. Their typography and grid layout is very clean and it’s just wayyy more enjoyable to read now. You can check out their new design by viewing their digital edition online [Here]

I also spotted Arab Times ads on buses saying they will be updating their design in the coming few days as well.

A reader made the video above of him and his friends racing at the Pro Kart track. [YouTube]

Thanks Pedro

Those of you who’ve been reading my blog for over 5 years might remember about the issues I previously faced with Showtime and how much I disliked them (Don’t try looking for the posts I deleted most of my hate posts after Virgin wanted to sue me back then). So yesterday I was in a good mood I guess since I ended up passing by their stand at The Avenues and signing up to one of their packages… and I don’t feel guilty about it.

Why? Mostly due to the fact that my experience with them since I signed up yesterday has been very positive. I originally wanted to sign up to their cheap KD15 Movies Plus package but then their salesman convinced me to go with the Premier Plus package which had everything Movie Plus had in addition to the sports and HD channels. He then managed to convince me to pay a bit extra and go with the Showbox receiver which had the hard drive built in so I could record stuff. I was told someone would be over within 48 hours to set up my subscription.

To my surprise Showtime actually came and installed my subscription this morning. I thought that was pretty impressive since I signed up last night and it was New Years day and yet this morning they came over and installed it for me. The HD channels are pretty cool and the receiver isn’t that annoying to use (much faster than the laggy one I had 8 years ago). The only odd thing is the fact for some reason they don’t broadcast the UFC in HD.

I hope I don’t run into any problems with them, so far they seem like a much better company since the last time I dealt with them.

Update: According to a reader they actually DO broadcast the UFC in HD but only the live showing. The reruns are not in HD. Great!

Update2: Already ran into my first problem with OSN. I am supposed to pay $65 (KD18.5) a month for my subscription and according to the salesman at The Avenues if I wanted the Showbox I pay a one time fee of KD7 extra. Today while checking my credit card balance I found out they charged me $158. When I called customer support they told me the first time setup fee is KD26. I was upset because no one told me there was a setup fee, I don’t mind paying it but I don’t like being surprised by hidden fees. Turns out it’s at KD19 setup fee if you want the regular receiver and KD26 if you have the Showbox.

Last year Al Mulla & Behbehani Motor Company announced that they were taking over the Fiat and Alfa Romeo dealership (Both were previously with the National Agencies Group). Their new showroom is opening up sometime this year in Al Rai but today I noticed they already had two Fiat 500’s on display at their Jeep/Dodge showroom (pictured above). The Fiat salesman wasn’t there but according to another salesman they are selling for around KD6,500.

This is definitely the coolest thing Kuwait Times have ever done. Today’s issue of their free Friday Times newspaper was wrapped with a copy of their first issue ever dating back to September 24, 1961. Their first issue was only 4 pages but there are enough gems in there to make it worth picking up. Here are the coolest things I found in the paper:

– An ad announcing a new 1962 model of an RCA TV arriving at Morad Yousuf Behbehani

– An ad from the then not yet opened Gulf Bank (pictured below)

– Kuwait Airport arrival and departure timings. The only destinations were Bahrain, Damascus, Beirut, Abadan, Doha and Cairo. No European or any other countries

– A classified ad for a car “Immediately available Austin 55 – 1969, roughly used by it’s careless owner, with one head lamp broken (by courtsey of a fellow motorist) dented all over it’s sleek frame, springs making noise only when driving on bad roads (bad roads non-existent at Kuwait), if you are still interested, send offers to K.T. Box, No. 524 Kuwait.” What I found funny is the honesty and the fact you need to send him a letter if you’re interested. The postal service must have been very reliable back then

– Kuwait Cinemas schedule, Psycho was playing at Al Andalus, Al-Hamra was closed due to repair, Al-Firdous was playing The Golden Horde, the open air cinema in Hawalli was playing Bayabit Al Ward and finally the open air cinema at Fahaheel was playing Tomb of Love.

I highly recommend you pass by a bakala or newspaper stand and pick up today’s free issue of the Friday Times. And if anyone from Kuwait Times is reading this, if you still have all your old issues, please convert them to PDF and upload them online!

Thanks Q

Back in September I posted about how Kuwait was featured in National Geographic Traveler and how I felt the article was superficial because they focused on just The Avenues. Many of you also had your views on the article and it looks like National Geographic Traveler read them because in their latest issue they’ve featured us in their Inbox section which you can read below.

That’s taken from their January/February 2011 issue. Sweet!

Thanks Dalia

[YouTube]

They get an “F” straight away for their choice in music. Their dancing and wardrobe get a “C”. McDonalds are still winning this dance contest followed by Pizza Hut who sadly have removed their video. Here’s the current ranking so far:

Kuwait Dance Competition
1- McDonalds
2- Pizza Hut
3- Center Point
4- KFC
5- Caribou Coffee

Yesterday I went ahead and turned 2:48PM into a community blog which is a blog in which anyone can create an account and publish articles. I’ve simplified the process of signing up and posting as much as I can to help make it easy for people who’ve never blogged before. The blog isn’t without some rules though and every post that gets published passes through me first before appearing on the blog. The reason for that has to do more with quality control and not censorship.

So if you’re interested in posting on 2:48PM, just go ahead and sign up. [Link]

I hadn’t heard of Cookie Time until around 15 minutes ago. It seems they’re a very popular cookie chain from New Zealand who had previously held the record for the largest cookie in the world. According to an article I just read, it looks like they’re currently in negotiations to open up four stores here in Kuwait. Sounds good to me. [Link]

The Dasman Diabetes Institute is putting together a collection of anonymous, but real stories from real people, here in Kuwait.

They’re searching for personal stories concerning the following categories:
-Diabetes – Asthma -Cancer – Obesity – Arthritis – Multiple Sclerosis – Heart Disease -Social Issues (Loss of a loved one or the effects of divorce on a family) -Maternity (Pregnancy, breastfeeding, postpartum depression) – Health Conditions and Illness (Any disease or condition which is not already mentioned above)

Why is it so useful to share these stories?
3 reasons…

First of all, it gives hope to those many people out there who think they are “the only one going through this”

Secondly, sharing your story can have a positive effect on someone else’s life, and bring comfort and support to many

And thirdly, it can raise awareness about an illness or a condition. This can lead to better understanding and more compassion from the wider community.

How can you share your story?

To share your story visit hope.dasmaninstitute.org
No personal details will be required.

For more information visit their Facebook page [Here]

My friend spotted the banner above at Holiday Inn Salmiya. Seems there is a 95% sale on designer brands taking place at their ballroom. I don’t know how long the sale is there for but according to the banner they’re open from 10AM to 10PM.

Thanks Q

Update: Seems today (Wednesday) is their last day

Yesterday the local blogosphere came alive about how starting January 1st The Avenues would turn into a non-smoking mall. I for one was very skeptical when hearing this since the airport for example is supposed to be smoke free yet people there smoke casually without any consequences. At restaurants smokers also usually have the best tables while non-smokers get shoved all the way in the back. Since I was in contact with someone at The Avenues, I decided to find out more about this smoking ban and how they were going to enforce it.

First of all The Avenues is going to be smoke free except for the following areas:
– Designated areas in cafés and restaurants
– Seating areas and space outside The Avenues (open air)
– 9 air freshener machines (pictured above) will be installed at all the basement entrances and those stations will be designated as smoking areas

Regarding enforcing this ban, if The Avenues security personal find anyone smoking they will approach them and ask them to stop. Since they’re a mall they can’t fine smokers themselves but they will be cooperating closely with the police who are present at the mall on a daily basis.

I am a non-smoker and I hate walking in a mall behind someone smoking so personally I really hope this campaign succeeds and The Avenues can truly enforce this smoking ban and set an example.

Since we’re on the subject of t-shirts. A friend of mine is selling I Love Q8 t-shirts based on the famous I Love NY icon. It’s good quality stuff since they’re printed in England. You can check them out on his website iloveq8.com

Personally I don’t find anything offensive in this t-shirt but some people do.

Ever since I was a little kid I’ve always had a thing for headphones. I’m not sure why but I had everything from the dorky large headphones that had a built in radio to the cool waterproof Sony’s which didn’t turn out to be that waterproof (as a kid it’s easy to mistake splash proof for waterproof). I guess I liked the immersion headphones offer and this hasn’t changed as I’ve grown older. I currently own the Bang & Olufsen A8, Shure E2, Sure SE210, Sennheiser PX100, Sennheiser PXC250, AKG K81 DJ, UE Super.fi 5 Pro, a UE Triple.Fi 10 Pro and my latest acquisition which this post revolves around, the BeyerDynamic DT770. I never think I have enough headphones and I always find a reason to get another one, I’m just obsessed…

If you don’t want to get bored you can skip this whole paragraph. Before I decided on which BeyerDynamic model I wanted I had to choose between closed or open air type headphones. Closed usually offer better sound isolation so that the people around you don’t hear what you’re listening to while with open air the sound leaks out and could annoy people around you. There are other advantages and disadvantages to each but since I was planning to listen to these headphones in the living room in front of my computer where Nat would be watching tv, I went with the DT770 model which is closed. If you prefer open air then you would need to check out the DT880 and DT990 models. Now that I had that sorted I had to choose which DT770 model I wanted, Amazon had 5 different models, the DT770 32 Ohm, 80 Ohm, 250 Ohm, 600 Ohm and the M. Even though all 5 headphones are the same model, they all had different sound signatures but after a lot of research I finally decided on the 600 Ohm since they supposedly were the best sounding of the group but with a big disadvantage to the rest which is they needed to be powered by a separate headphone amplifier. The 32 Ohm and 80 Ohm could be powered by the iPod directly (but could benefit from a small portable headphone amp like the FiiO E5 or a home made CMoy). The 250 Ohm require a headphone amp but can be powered by some portable headphone amps as well. The M version is for drummers while the 600 Ohm requires an external powered amp to drive. So I had to research headphone amps and once I got into that I found out I could get even better sound by bypassing my computer internal audio car by using an external DAC (digital-to-analog converter). To cut it short I ended up getting the FiiO E7 DAC and the FiiO E9 amp. The amp had enough power to drive the my headphones while the E7 acted as a DAC when connected to the E9 but could also be used as a portable headphone amp with 20+ hour of battery life when used by itself although it wouldn’t be able to power the DT770 by itself.

I listen to a variety of music ranging from downbeat like Kruder & Dorfmeiser, A Guy Called Gerald, Tosca, Dzihan and Kamien and anything from the K7 label, 90’s alternative bands like Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, Blind Melon, Radiohead, NIN, Tool etc.. to electronic music like Paul Oakenfold, Tiesto, Matt Darey, Underworld and Booka Shade. After having the headphones for a few weeks now I have to say I really like them a lot but slightly disappointed with them at the same time. Firstly the good stuff. These are the most immersive headphones I’ve ever had. They’re extremely comfortable since the ear cups are soft and the material nice to the touch. They also fit around my ears instead of pressing onto them which makes them less painful when listening to them for a long time. Once I have them on I don’t really notice them anymore, I could leave them on for hours without feeling any discomfort whatsoever. The build quality is amazing, they’re made in Germany and a lot of metal is used in the construction so they feel like they could last a lifetime and they should seeing how much they cost. The sound is also extremely well balanced, for example I love the Beats by Dre headphones but their bass dominates everything else and the music can end up sounding muddy. With the DT770 they’re perfectly balanced, a bit too perfect actually since sometimes I wish they did pump out more bass specially when listening to some electronic music. But that’s just on rare occasions, majority of the time they blast music wonderfully and I actually re-ripped some of my CD’s at higher bit-rates so I could truly appreciate these headphones.

But, like I just said, I wish sometimes the lows did dominate but I guess that gives me an excuse to also pick up a pair of Beats for when I’m in the mood to pretend I’m at a club. The second negative is the fact it doesn’t isolate as much as I was hoping they would. When I have the volume pretty high up the way I like it, everybody in the room could hear what I’m playing and if the TV is playing loud I could also hear it. I guess the solution to that would be to listen to music with my in-hear headphones but they aren’t anywhere as comfortable as the DT770’s.

Overall though these are pretty good headphones, the best I’ve owned and completely destroys everything I have except for maybe the UE triple.fi which I should review soon. Price wise they’re not that expensive but if you’re getting the 600 Ohm version then it adds up since you would need to purchase an external Amp to run them. I paid $244 for the DT770, $99 for the FiiO E7 and $130 for the FiiO E9. You could skip the E7 or just skip both the E7 and E9 and get the 32 or 80 Ohm DT770. The final score is a highly recommended 4 out of 5.

Amazon Links:
BeyerDynamic DT770 600 Ohm
FiiO E7 DAC
FiiO E9 Amp
FiiO L3 (iPod cable)