2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

I woke up today morning at 8:30 with a phone call from Stallion. He was on his way to come pick me up so we could go to the junkyard. I needed a seat riser for my Wrangler but not any seat riser, it had to be off a pre-2000 model because the one I had was one of the new ones which allows my driver seat to tilt forward. The pre-2000 models didn’t have that option and so had more empty space under the seat which would allow me to install my car’s amplifier in that space.

I was expecting the junkyard to be just one large unorganized place but it turned out to be this huge area made up of little small junkyards that were split up by car make or type. We drove around looking for junkyards that had Wrangler parts but there weren’t many. We found around 6 to 8 places that had Jeep vehicles but only 3 had Wranglers. After driving around from place to place we found what I was looking for BUT the guy would refuse to sell the seat risers without the actual seat.

Stallion using his great haggling skills tried to convince the guy to sell us the seat riser by itself but instead of convincing the guy to sell us the riser he nearly initiated a riot and the guy ended up refusing to sell us anything. I was sure we were going to get attacked by the Afghani workers there, I don’t know what happened because it all happened fast but it was a really short conversation that ended with Stallion and the Afghani worker shouting at each other and us walking out quickly.

We finally gave up on finding the seat riser without the seat so we took off back home. On our way we passed by Dunkin Donuts in Al-Rai since I had been craving Dunkin Donuts for a week now. It had be a long time since I had Dunkin and I had forgotten how good their donuts were. I took a lot of pictures of the junk yards which you can find by clicking continue below. It was a pretty productive morning.

I am not a big fan of classic cars or old cars in general but there are five I would love to have in my garage one day.

1- Lancia Delta Integrale

2- BMW M3 E30

3- VW Golf GTI MKII

4- Ford Escort Cosworth

5- Datsun Skyline GTR (1971)

Marzouq sent me a link to a website which asks you to predict when Britney Spears is going to die and if your guess turns out right you would win a Sony PS3. I am predicting February 14th 2008, on Valentines when she realizes she is all alone. [Link]

This is a cool software that works on some Nokia phones. Say you get a phone call while in a meeting, all you need to do is flip your phone over and it will give the caller a busy tone and put your phone on silent. You could also just put your phone on silent by flipping your phone over anytime and taking silence off by flipping it back. Currently only works on the N95, N95 8GB, N93i and N82. [Link]

I’ve always wondered what was the logic behind the name of some items at IKEA. They always have Scandinavian names but what do they mean? According to Wikipedia it turns out there is a format IKEA follows. Firstly most of the names are usually either Swedish, Danish, Finnish or Norwegian in origin. Secondly most of the names are based on a special naming system which IKEA has put in place and is as follows:

Upholstered furniture, coffee tables, rattan furniture, bookshelves, media storage, doorknobs: Swedish placenames

Beds, wardrobes, hall furniture: Norwegian place names

Dining tables and chairs: Finnish place names

Bookcase ranges: Occupations

Bathroom articles: Scandinavian lakes, rivers and bays

Kitchens: grammatical terms, sometimes also other names

Chairs, desks: men’s names

Materials, curtains: women’s names

Garden furniture: Swedish islands

Carpets: Danish place names

Lighting: terms from music, chemistry, meteorology, measures, weights, seasons, months, days, boats, nautical terms

Bedlinen, bed covers, pillows/cushions: flowers, plants, precious stones; words related to sleep, comfort, and cuddling

Children’s items: mammals, birds, adjectives

Curtain accessories: mathematical and geometrical terms

Kitchen utensils: foreign words, spices, herbs, fish, mushrooms, fruits or berries, functional descriptions

Boxes, wall decoration, pictures and frames, clocks: colloquial expressions, also Swedish placenames

via

oobject has a top 20 list of skyscrapers in the Gulf, nearly all of them are in Dubai but Kuwait’s upcoming Mubarek Tower made the list. My favorite is the Ras Al Khaimah Convention Center (Dubai UAE) pictured above which is designed by OMA and led by Rem Koolhaas. Its made to look like the Death Star from Star Wars. [Link]

Xerox launched a new identity and I really don’t like it, the sphere with the web 2.0 glossy effect is never going to be a classic. The only thing I like about the logo is that it reminds me of Racer X (picture below) from the cartoon Speed Racer. [Link]

DJ Uruj from the night ride on FM99.7 just read everyones negative comments about her in an old post and has replied back with the following:

Gee you guys, didnt know I was that bad….. “a voice that cracks and rasps, and pitches up and down all the time, like she has a continual sore throat?Definitely not a voice for radio. She also has a strange sense of humour…..”

My goodness me…..I have tears in my eyes now…..lol….but seriously, i can see that this was two months ago…..what do you guys think of my show now…..please let me know how I can improve it without being insulting…..am looking forward to your comments…..and the name is Uruj Saeed…..not a pseudonym, its my real name…..!!

She also posted the following:

Hey everyone, listen up, there’s going to be a show tomorrow on hate mail in which i will mention this blog, so do tune in…..and dont take offense, its just for kicks…..:)

So if anyone here has feedback on how DJ Uruj can improve leave a comment below. I personally think she can’t be fixed but since no one listens to 99.7 anyway I don’t think it matters. If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

New York Times must have been on something when they came out with this list of “53 Places to go in 2008” because they’ve placed Kuwait in position number 32! We beat places like Las Vegas, New York and London, thats just insane! [Link]

Thanks S!

Thanks Stafa

I was going to add this note to my Aramex post below as an update but I decided not to hijack it and instead post this separately.

On January 3rd my car amp arrived to my U Shop We Ship address.
On January 4th my car amp was shipped from my mailbox to Kuwait.
Today, January 6th, I just got my car amp delivered to my office.

This has to be the fastest I have EVER received a package.

On Friday the 25th of January, Animal Friends League in Kuwait will be hosting a paint ball tournament on their farm in Wafra. The tournament will be comprised of five teams of five players each.

The entry fee is 20KD per player which includes:
Gun, face mask, body armor, CO2 canister, 200 paint balls and food.
Each additional 200 paintballs can be purchased for 5KD.
Each additional CO2 canisters can be purchased for 4KD.
Spectators are encouraged to attend for 3KD which includes food.

Teams need to register by January 20th by e-mail with a list of team players and a team name. Players must be over the age of 18.

For more information visit their website. [Link]

Aramex called me up today asking if we could sit down together and discuss the problems I have with their service. I am thinking, why get the opinion of one guy when you can get the opinion of a whole bunch of people?

So if you use Aramex and have problems with them please post it below as a comment so they can read it. It seems they have a genuine interest to improve their service.

Slider Station finally have a website up and running but when I try to check it on my Mac my browser practically freezes. I tried using both FireFox and Safari and the website seems too graphically heavy to browse properly. From what I managed to see, they have some photos up and the menu but without the prices. [Link]

A cool flash based typing app that calculates how fast you type. When I was in university I hit 70wpm in my touch typing class, I wonder how I would compare now. [Link]

update: I just hit 66wpm but I am lying down on my couch watching Rush Hour 3 (which sucks btw) and typing on my unconventional MacBook keyboard. I am sure I could easily hit 70+ while sitting at my desk typing on a regular keyboard.