2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

As you probably noticed I have a new sponsor, Al Ghalia Group who are based in Bahrain. This means I now have a total of 5 banners on my blog which I won’t deny is a lot. I have tried my best not to clutter up the blog too much with banners and this is honestly the best I can do.

Like you I would rather this blog had no banners at all but the banners are there for a reason… they provide me with extra income. I understand these banners decrease the aesthetics of the blog but the money is actually pushing me to continue blogging.

Blogging daily is difficult, its a lot of pressure and it takes time. I currently try to post a minimum of 3 posts a day so I could remain consistent. If I didn’t have the income coming in from the banners I might have stopped blogging ages ago or at least I would have stopped posting as often.

Now money usually is not a comfortable subject to discuss but this is a blog and I think its important for me to be as open as I can with my readers.

How much money am I making? Well I have decided to share with everyone a PDF file I send to people who request information on advertising on the blog. Its my rate card and you can download it by clicking [Here]. I wasn’t sure if I should make this information public or not but I figured if I was a reader I would be curious to know how much money this blog is making the same way I am curious to know how much money engadet or digg make. Well as you can see from the rate card this blog is currently making nearly $3000 a month. This is a good chunk of cash and I hope now everyone understands why I have so many banners here.

I have not sold out. Just because I am making money from the blog doesn’t mean I have sold out. All I am doing is cashing in on my 15 minutes of fame. When something sucks I will still say it sucks and when something is good I will still say its good.

Anyway it feels awkward sharing this information but I hope everyone especially my long time readers understand the reason for all these banners. Thank you!

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update: If anyone has any questions you can ask by leaving a comment below and I will reply to it.

One reader, Biohazard asked an important question which is Can I bash a sponsors product? The answer is simply no. When Alghanim Automotive were my sponsors I told them that if a cars they lent me to test drive sucked then I would post negative stuff about it. So what they did was just lend me their best cars. Now though what I do is tell my sponsors that if they lend me a product to try out and it turns out to suck I will just not mention the product at all. This way they aren’t afraid to send me more stuff to try out.

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update 2: I changed the location of the new banner because of complaints. If you prefer the new location over the previous one please leave a comment below. In case you missed it here is a screen shot of the previous location. [Screen Shot]

I just got the following SMS from my sister who I’m guessing is inside Avenues:

Avenues has what is acclaimed to be the sexiest Starbucks in the world. Even the name and logo are in silver, not green. The walls are also dark gray granite.

Sounds cool. I am going to google now and see if there is anything like this anywhere else in the world. Avenues is still not open to the public.

As most of you probably know by now there have been a number of Bird Flu cases reported in Kuwait. The big question of course is are we in any danger? How can we contract the Avian flu? Well I did some research and from what I understood the only way you can contract bird flu is through their saliva, nasal secretions, and feces. Meaning unless you are planning on making out with a bird you should be pretty safe. [Source]

I was over at Marzouq watching 24, episode 11 of season 6 when Chloe O’Brian wrote down a number and then dialed it. Marzouq told me that all the numbers on the show are real numbers you could actually dial so we picked up the phone and called the number Chloe had just called on the show and we got the following automated message. [AUDIO FILE]

The number we dialed was 001-310-5973781

Jazeera Airways seem to have a new version of the clock. If you go to the Jazeera Airways website and check the departure times on the timetable they have flights leaving at 7:60AM. Can someone tell me how that is possible? Here is a screen shot in case they fix it. [Picture]

Thank you for Steve for pointing this out to me.

Our own car was rocked by a group of about 10 hoodlums trying to get in. We didn’t have foam. We didn’t even make eye contact. They kicked the doors, they scratched the paint, they shouted obscenities. The police had no way of controlling the crowds; most looked on with disgusted expressions; many of the older guys shaking their heads in disappointment.

Desert Girl has a really good post on how the National Day and Liberation Day celebrations keep getting worse and worse every year. Its really sad how these kids have turned 2 days of celebration into 2 days of terror. Next year I hope they ban the sale of foam cans in stores. Here is a link to her post. [Link]

Today I watched a pigeon hatch from an egg right outside my office window. At first it was exciting but 15 minutes later the pigeon still hadn’t finished hatching which made things really boring.

I passed in front of the Jeep dealer yesterday and noticed they had the new redesigned Wranglers on display. Since they were closed due to the holiday I called them up first thing today morning. I spoke to a salesman and he told me they had just received the Wranglers and they didn’t have any prices yet. He took my number down and promised he would call me as soon as they did. Later in the day I got a call back and this is what I found out.

Wrangler Sport – 2 doors
Price: KD7,399

Wrangler Sahara – 4 doors
Price: KD8,799

I find these prices too high but Jeep ALWAYS overprices their new cars.

The Wrangler is way cooler with the roof off and I wish I could keep it like this all year round. I have one problem though, it seems at night cats are coming and sleeping inside the car, I don’t know how to stop them from doing that. I mean I don’t mind them napping in the car but I am just worried they are going to pee in it or something.

The Kuwait BMW Motorcycle Club launched their website a few days ago. The club is run by TriStar and is open to Ducati riders also since at the moment there is no Ducati club in Kuwait. I think its actually open to all riders no matter what brand of bike you have. They usually have weekly rides and events so its a pretty active club. The site is blog like with a forum that currently has no activity but overall the site does have potential. Hopefully it gets updated often and riders start participating in their forum. [Link]

Kuwait is the 8th fattest country in the world, even ahead of the US! [Link]

1. Nauru
2. Micronesia
3. Cook Islands
4. Tonga
5. Niue
6. Samoa
7. Palau
8. Kuwait
9. United States
10. Kiribati

Hungry Bunny is a local creation that opened up in the early 80s in Kuwait. It was inspired by a Australian franchise called Hungry Jack which was what Burger King was called in Australia back then.

In 1997 Al Homaizi Foodstuff Co. who owned Hungry Bunny got the rights to Burger King. Since they couldn’t have two competing franchises they decided to close down all the Hungry Bunnys and open up Burger Kings in the same locations.

Since then there have been copycats the most popular being “Hungry Bunny World” and “Super Bunny” which was named after the famous Hungry Bunny burger. Hungry Bunny World actually opened up a branch on the 4th Ring Road back in 2005 and called it just “Hungry Bunny”. This led to a lot of speculation and rumors that Hungry Bunny was relaunching but they weren’t true. Al Homaizi sued (or threatened to sue) so they added the word “World” on their signage.

I heard awhile back from a friend that Al Homaizi was actually thinking of relaunching Hungry Bunny but I don’t know if thats true or not. For now the only way you can enjoy Hungry Bunny is to drive down to Saudi Arabia where the franchise still exists there. Here is the link to their website: www.hungry-bunny.com

note: the above information is based on my knowledge. If there are any mistakes in dates or events I will fix them but as far as I know the above is accurate.

update: A reader by the name of HaMooR wrote the following:

Dear Mark,

Al Homaizi has the BK franchize since the first hungry bunny openned in Kuwait. and I believe it was Kaifan branch, in order for Al Homaizi to sake BK prudects at that time in kuwait. they have to change the name of BK, because BK was consider in the taboo list (boycott Isreal).

There was a big sign in kaifan branch that says all the meat prudects are BK. So when BK was removed from the list back in 97 .. and there is no reason to for them to hide the name, they switched to BK.

Did it open or not yet? I read somewhere it was supposed to open yesterday.

update: I passed by awhile ago, it didn’t open.

Best Motion Picture of the Year
Winner: THE DEPARTED

Best Achievement in Directing
Winner: Martin Scorsese for THE DEPARTED

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Winner: Forest Whitaker for THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Winner: Helen Mirren for THE QUEEN

Best Achievement in Editing
Winner: THE DEPARTED

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song
Winner: AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH

Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
Winner: LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score
Winner: BABEL

Best Documentary, Feature
Winner: AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH

Best Documentary, Short Subject
Winner: THE BLOOD OF YINGZHOU DISTRICT

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Winner: Jennifer Hudson for DREAMGIRLS

Best Foreign Film
Winner: LEBEN DER ANDEREN, DAS

Best Achievement in Visual Effects
Winner: THE PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN

Best Achievement in Cinematography
Winner: LABERINTO DEL FAUNO, EL

Best Achievement in Costume Design
Winner: MARIE ANTOINETTE

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published
Winner: THE DEPARTED

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
Winner: HAPPY FEET

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Winner: Alan Arkin for LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE

Best Achievement in Sound
Winner: DREAMGIRLS

Best Achievement in Sound Editing
Winner: LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA

Best Short Film, Live Action
Winner: WEST BANK STORY

Best Short Film, Animated
Winner: THE DANISH POET

Best Achievement in Makeup
Winner: LABERINTO DEL FAUNO, EL

Best Achievement in Art Direction
Winner: LABERINTO DEL FAUNO, EL

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Here are some movies I watched the past few days, I didn’t like any of them.

Blood Diamond
This was a movie I had been looking forward to see for some time now. When I finally got to watch it, I didn’t like it and it was mostly because of the story. The movie is trying to be real and emotional by showing the truth behind the illegal diamond industry in Africa and while all I wanted to watch was a no brainer action movie.

Little Children
Another movie I had been looking forward to see for a very long time. Sadly the trailer painted a different picture from the actual movie. Not that the movie was bad because it wasn’t. The trailer made me expect a thriller but the movie turned out to be more drama mixed in with romance.

Lonely Hearts
I watched this movie because of James Gandolfini. Since the new season of Sopranos still hasn’t started I figured I could get my dose of mob stories from Lonely Hearts. Turns out this movie had nothing to do with mobs and James Gandolfini was actually a good guy. I still gave the movie a chance but it was just boring. The whole movie is about this serial killer which might have been something dramatic back in the 1940s where the movie is based but today with shows like CSI and Dexter, serial killers is something of the norm.

Babel
Finally Babel. This movie has to be the worst of the bunch. Its trying to follow the same style as last years big hit Crash where stories come together but this time there are 4 different stories located across 3 different countries. The stories alone are nothing exciting and even in the end when they all come together it didn’t do anything for me. Crash was a whole lot better.

Now I have one more movie I want to watch today and thats Little Miss Sunshine. Hopefully it won’t be disappointing.