2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

I thought a lot of people knew about this already but I am still getting emails from people telling me they tried ordering an iPhone from the Apple Store but that its asking them for a US shipping address.

What you need to do to order an iPhone from the Apple Store or any electronic item from Amazon for that matter is to set up a US forwarding mailbox. Basically its a mailbox thats located in the States and anything that arrives in it will get forwarded to your address here in Kuwait.

There are four companies in Kuwait that offer this service and I’ve tried all four of them, my favorite and the one I use the most is U Shop We Ship. The main reason I prefer it over the competition is the fact that signing up to their service can be done online and all payments for the shipments can also be paid online. This makes things really practical. Items usually take 3 to 4 days to arrive to Kuwait once shipped from your US mailbox.

I know a lot of people have tried ordering iPhones from the Apple Store and have had their shipments canceled. I don’t know why thats happening and why it works with some people and not with others. I myself have ordered 3 iPhones with the last one around 10 days ago and I haven’t had any cancellations yet. I’ve also received the iPhones quickly without paying any custom fees. I don’t have any advice or tips on how to avoid getting your order canceled, I guess it could be random thing.

update: To find out what firmware you have on an un-activated iPhone do the following dial *3001#12345#* and then push “Call”

If you see 03.12.06_G then your firmware is 1.0.0
If you see 03.14.08_G then your firmware is 1.02
If you see 04.01.13_G then your firmware is 1.1.1

A bunch of 16 year old girls put together a horror walking game in their school carnival last year and because it turned out to be a blast they decided to set up a larger version at Shaab Park so it could be experienced by more people. They’ve rented a hall at Shaab Park and the game which they’ve called “Crime Scenes” will be running for the first three days of Eid (13, 14 and 15th of October) from 6 to 10PM.

The game is the girls creation and they put everything together themselves, it’s also the first time a game like this has been set up in Kuwait. The downside to all this is that due to the fact that the young girls are running the horror game themselves, they are only allowing boys under 10 and women of any age to participate in their game.

For more information you can check out their ad [Here]
and a YouTube video [Here]

Last month HSBC sent out a memo noting that they recently seized an unusually larger number of counterfeit KWD 20 notes. They have a PDF file explaining how to spot a counterfeit which you can download by clicking this [Link]

Thanks John!

A friend emailed me while I was in Beirut asking if I could help him out with something. For awhile now he’s been pondering what Banak really is and what its called in English. He did a bit of research online and all he found was another blog that was asking the same question. So does anyone know the answer?

Picture taken from COLoriya

First came the bouncing balls, then the exploding building and now the rabbits. Personally, this is my favorite from the three. [YouTube]

Here is a link to a video clip that offers a glimpse to how it was made. [YouTube]

I saw this picture of the garbage bin and thought it was a fake crab climbing it but it turned out to be a real one! It’s a Coconut Crab which is the largest land living crab. It’s called Coconut Crab because of its ability to crack open coconuts. [Link]

via kottke

I am at the Beirut airport now waiting for my flight back to Kuwait. The airport is empty with barely any passengers. The part of the airport I’m in is completly vacant except for me which is cool since its very quiet and peaceful. ‎(Posted from my Nokia e61i)

Today is the last day of the Zain TV commercial shoot. It’s also my tenth night here in Lebanon but also my last, tomorrow I am finally coming back to Kuwait. This commercial is turning out great. (Posted from my Nokia e61i)

For those of you who don’t know, Marzouq, Khalid, Bader and myself will be participating in this years Red Bull Flugtag which will be held at Marina Waves next month. Our team is called Imperial27 and we are planning to kick some major ass.

Our plane should have been done by now but getting stuff cleared from customs in Kuwait is really a big hassle specially since its Ramadan now. Well the guys (Khalid actually) managed to clear two boxes a couple of days ago which contained some parts we needed for the plane. We ordered them from Renault which although sounds really cool the parts themselves are actually pretty boring looking, they are part of the system that will be propelling our plane off the ramp. Problem is we (cough cough Bader cough) measured one part wrong and now it won’t fit so we are trying to find a solution. Once everything is sorted and put together it should turn out pretty cool.. if our theory and calculations turn out to be right that is.

The Imperial27 website is also nearly done and should be ready by next week. It will be located at www.imperial27.com and we will launch the site by revealing our plane there so in case we couldn’t finish putting our plane together by then we will have to push back the launch of the site. We are also trying to see if we could do a live broadcast of the revealing but we have some minor glitches that we need to work out. Anyway will keep everyone posted with any updates.

The good stuff:
– It’s pretty
– Excellent browser
– Everyone wants to touch your iphone
– It has an iPod built in
– Touch screen is amazing
– Decent camera
– It’s cheap, KD95 for 4GB and KD130 for 8GB (with shipping to Kuwait) prices the iPhone very competitively to other regular phones from Nokia and Sony Ericsson

The bad stuff:
– Once you have an iPhone you realize its just a phone
– If you have a lot of numbers its a real pain finding a contact
– Everyone wants to touch your iphone
– Typing on the iPhone is a joke
– Battery life is a bigger joke, barely lasts a day with below average use
– Adding a ringtone is a hassle
– Majority of headphones won’t work with it
– Not as useful or fun without a wireless internet or GPRS connection
– You have a lot of basic phone features missing like forwarding an SMS, turning off the predictive dictionary, different phone profiles, searching for contacts etc.. etc.. etc..

Would I recommend it?
If you aren’t a heavy phone user yes.
If you don’t send a lot of messages also yes.
For everyone else, no.

Final score, 3.5 out of 5. Nat loves it although she has issues with it. I personally could never have an iPhone as my primary phone.

Update: I now use the iPhone as my primary phone and can’t imagine life without it. The software 2.0 brought with it the app store which has made the iphone a lot more interesting for me.

Bacon = Freedom
Lettuce = Love
Tomato = Passion

All for only $33.95… weird! [Link]

I am at a location now shooting and there is a really cute 3 month old German shepherd called Enzo. I really miss my dog, can’t wait to get back to Kuwait and see him. (Posted from my Nokia e61i)

Remember the Dove ad of the woman morphing from something not very pretty to something very hot? Well this is the follow-up campaign. [YouTube]

And I thought iPhones were selling for a lot in Kuwait. Yesterday I overheard some Virgin employees here in Lebanon talk about this store thats selling unlocked iPhones for $1400!

I don’t have any paintings or pictures on my walls back home in Kuwait but when I get back I will have my first one. I got the picture above enlarged and will frame it and hang it up on my wall once I get back. Its a beautiful photo taken in the 80’s during the war in Lebanon. The picture was taken by Roger Moukarzel who also signed the photo for me. I love war photos and this one is probably as good as they come. if I wasn’t working in advertising I would most probably be a war photographer. Its something I’ve always wanted to do.