2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

I’ve been using a trackball for nearly 6 years now. I used to use a regular mouse before but due to the amount of hours I sit in front of a computer my wrists started to hurt a lot and so I decided to do something about it. I ended up purchasing the Kensington Orbit Optical Mouse back in 2004 which I’ve posted about on this blog before and given it high marks. From day one my wrist issues got fixed and I became a big fan of trackballs. I’ve purchased 3 Orbit trackballs over the years, they never broke down just started looking old and so I would swap them out. But, I’ve always had my eye on the Orbit’s bigger, beefier and more expensive older brother, the Kensington Expert trackball which is pictured above.

While in New York a few months back I got to try the Expert trackball and decided I definitely wanted it. The Expert trackball has 4 buttons, a huge ass ball, a scroll ring and a comfy detachable wrist support. It looks good, I love using it and it makes my old smaller Orbit trackball look like a child’s toy.

I really don’t have anything negative to say about it. You can program the 4 buttons to do a variety of things and the way I’ve set them up, the left two buttons are a left click while the right two buttons are a right click. I’ve then set it up so that while in Firefox if I click the two top buttons or the two bottom buttons together at the same time then it flip between my open tabs. Pretty useful. The problem though is the way I use the trackball I actually only use the bottom left and the top right buttons since these are the two buttons that are under my fingers while using the trackball. I find it uncomfortable to use the other two buttons without changing my hand position so I don’t use them that much. The scroll ring is great and I love flicking it quickly when I want to scroll down a page in a hurry.

Price wise the Kensington Expert Trackball cost’s $79 which isn’t cheap considering it’s younger brother the Orbit costs around $22. But I have to say it’s worth the extra cash since you get what you pay for. For anyone with wrist problems I highly recommend trackballs… any trackballs not just the two I’ve used. They really make a difference.

Kensington Orbit Trackball on Amazon
Kensington Expert Trackball on Amazon

A reader called Ahmad emailed me some pictures showing how his neighbor installed telecom transceivers on his roof (above) and then covered them up to look like tacky decorations (below). I’ve seen telecom towers made to look like gigantic palm trees but never seen something like this before.

The reader already emailed the baladieh on two different occasions but nothing has happened yet. According to the reader:

These are very close to the other houses including my house and it is hazardous to the health. The house owner actually doesn’t live in this house but he is renting the whole house for different families.

I’m curious to see how this issue gets solved, hopefully Ahmad will keep us posted on the outcome of his complaints.

Awhile ago I found out the Lexus IS F is now officially available at the dealer here in Kuwait. Previously the only way to get an ISF was to import one usually from the US where it launched back in 2008. Sadly the local dealer is selling it for KD25,000 which is nearly KD10,000 more expensive than in the US so it’s still cheaper to import one.

I think I’m going to try and pass by after lunch tomorrow and take some pictures. I haven’t taken sport shots before and a rugby match seems like a good way to start:

The Kuwait Scorpions Rugby Club (formally the Nomads) start their 2010/2011 season this Friday (1st Oct) with a home match against Muscat RFC. Pre-season training has been well attended and with the recent league reconstruction, the Scorpions are looking to have a successful season both home and away.

Come and support your local team against the might of Muscat!!

Kick Off is at 3pm at the Ahmadi ‘Sandpit’

For directions and further details of KSRFC, please go to www.q8scorpions.com

Thanks Akbar

I just got an email from someone telling me he’s been getting lots of phone calls regarding my post about Sidekick Academy. It seems by mistake I typed the wrong number in and people have been calling him all day. The correct number for Sidekick Academy is 99975562.

Sorry about that!

Since when does Kuwait have a cricket team? It’s kinda like when I first found out we had a baseball stadium. [Link]

Update: Here a more pictures of the baseball stadiums. [Link]

Remember the trolololo song? Well the guy (now much older) made a live appearance recently and sung/lip synced his famous song again. It’s a very weird video with appearances by Darth Vader, what looks like the Village People and a Gorilla. [YouTube]

It’s been awhile since I posted about Mishaal Al Roomi. For those of you who are new to the blog and haven’t heard about him, Mishaal is a young and extremely talented weather forecaster whom I’ve posted about a number of times before. He had a website which he used to update daily with the weather forecast even though he was only 17 years old. His site ended up having technical problems and then the updates suddenly stopped. Well he emailed me today telling me that his website www.q8weather.com is now fixed and getting updated daily.

So if you want to get an accurate weather forecast you can now head over to his website and check out his predictions. I’m also going to check with him and see if there is somehow I can implement his forecast into the Kuwait Blogs app. Here is a link to his 5-day forecast which is what I used to check [Link]

Me and Nat passed by Sidekick Academy earlier tonight and signed up to their courses. Nat’s going to be taking their Be-Safe womens program which I previously posted about while I’ll be taking private lessons in mixed martial arts.

It was my first time passing by their training facility and I was really impressed. The place is huge and feels like a great place to train in. They also told me Royce Gracie will be coming back to Kuwait in around 2 months time which is great.

So now I’m pretty much set up with activities on a daily basis. I’ve got Core Fitness four times a week, mixed martial arts once a week and I’ll be building and racing radio controlled cars with Pro-Hobbies also once a week. And people say there is nothing to do in Kuwait…

Update: Here are the prices if anyone is interested

Program Pricing (6 times a week)
1 month = KD70
3 months = KD200
6 months = KD375
1 year = KD720

Be Safe Program (twice a week/women only)
1 month = KD45

Private Lessons (per hour)
KD10 = Private lesson with a red belt instructor
KD20 = Private lesson with a brown belt instructor
KD30 = Private lesson with a black belt instructor

Their phone number is 99965562 99975562

Update: Sorry I posted their wrong phone number, the correct number is 99975562

I just read about this on Autoblog and thought it was a pretty cool idea and one they should apply here in Kuwait as well.

Police in Abu Dhabi take traffic violations very seriously, and they’re reportedly adding a new tool to their arsenal – public shaming. After the evening news bulletin, videos will be shown of various traffic offenses along with the fines and penalties they incur. They have already lined up 30 such video violations and plan to run the series for a month.

It would be cooler though if the show was more like the popular reality American TV show COPS. [Link]

Remember the goal keeper I posted a video about 2 weeks back that caught a penalty kick and started celebrating not noticing the ball continue to roll into the goal? Well he screwed up again but this time he ended up running off the pitch topless obviously very upset. [YouTube]

Thanks Rob

The U.S. Embassy, Kuwait has organized a photography exhibition that is hosted by Dar al-Athar Al-Islamiyyah. The photography exhibition is of famous American jazz musicians who traveled the world on U.S. Department of State-funded tours to promote cultural diplomacy.

Time
September 23rd to October 8th
Saturday to Thursday 10am to 2pm & 4pm to 8pm
Friday 4pm to 8pm

Place
Dar Al-Athar Al-Islamiyyah (Americani Hospital)

You can view the flyer [Here]

Van Cleef & Arpels will be launching tomorrow evening (September 28th) at Salhiya Complex.

Additionally, Bvlgari will be relaunching on October 4th in the same location as their previous store in Salhiya but this time it’s under new ownership.

Did anyone feel an earthquake around 2:25PM?

Update: Looks like an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.7 hit near a city called Kazerun in Southern Iran. More information [Here]

Thats some really old footage. Not sure if all of it was shot in Kuwait or just the airport bit since I don’t recognize any of it. [YouTube]