2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

The top 50 music videos all playable on one page. [Link] #

Here is the photo in big [Picture]

Went Christmas tree shopping tonight. Found a gorgeous Nordmann Fir tree which we ended up getting. The place I went to just got the trees two days ago, he had a couple of cheap Norway Spruce trees but the majority of them where Nordmann Fir. I forgot what the place is called but its up in Al-Rai, on the 4th ring road where all the plant stores are located. He has a couple on display outside but the rest are all inside. Prices range from KD45 and up, depending on the size of the tree.

Someone just sent me this link which shows a Kuwaiti cop dancing with a bottle of whisky in his hand. Notice how many topics involving alcohol this week? It must be a sign. [Video]

update: here is a link to another older video of a girl dressed in a copy uniform and dancing. [Link]

update 2: it seems Iraqi police can do it better (thanks moayad) [Video]

Just booked a flight for me and Nat to Beirut. Will be leaving on the 27th and coming back January 1st. I booked with Jazeera Airways and was expecting not to find any places but it seems the current political situation in Lebanon has led to a lot of cancellations. Last time I celebrated New Years in Lebanon was in 2000 so it should be fun.

I was going to post about this for awhile now but never got around to it. Doesn’t matter though, Brand New has a write up about PWC’s rebranding into Agility. It was done by Siegel+Gale and I heard it cost them 1.5 million dollars. [Link]

GIANT magazine has a collection of the 50 greatest commercials of the 80s and they include a video for each one. The WWF’s Wrestling Superstars commercial brought back good memories, I had a lot of the action figures. [Link]

Just read about this on Kuwait Unplugged. Must be the funniest thing I read this year.. unless, they know something we don’t like maybe they are legalizing alcohol starting January 1st. More details on Kuwait Unplugged plus a scan of the press release. [Link]

I just ordered two Jack Bauer bags from Amazon. The Jack Bauer bag is the military messenger bag Jack Bauer uses on the show. I was looking for a nice sized bag in which I could dump all my stuff in and was aiming for a Freitag but every time I try to order one from them I can never decide on which color or design. In the end I decided to go for the Jack Bauer bag since it costs just KD7 and figured it would be fun to have. [Link]

bonus: here is a really cool 24 photo [Picture]

A funny list of actual English subtitles from films that were made in Hong Kong. Lots of funny stuff. [Link]

So I am coming back home after work on the Gulf Road and I notice there was a huge fire behind Texas Chicken. So made a detour, passed Texas Chicken and parked my car just as the fire truck was arriving. I take my camera, locked the car and walked towards the fire. The fire looked huge and still fresh so I turn on my camera to shoot and turns out I had no battery! This was the first time I ever ran out of battery when I needed to shoot something. I felt naked.

Wow I suck. This is a flash game where you try to guess the location of a country. Press start to begin. I scored a 44 in my first run. Africa just confuses me. [Link]

update: I got 74!

Seems the local magazine Student-Talk doesn’t think too highly of us bloggers. K.TheKuwaiti has a couple of interesting posts regarding Student-Talk including the emails they sent him in reply to his original post. After reading their emails it kinda makes me appreciate Bazaar just a bit more.

Here are links to his posts:
Student-Talk Magazine is a joke
Student-Talk responds
Dima Al-Damen from Student-Talks, Talks

I love Montreal. Its my favorite place on the planet. Since Christmas is nonexistent in Kuwait and since Nat has never been anywhere other then Lebanon and Kuwait I figured we would spend Christmas and New Years in Montreal. I was looking forward to binging on Labatt Blue while stuffing myself with poutine. Nat on the other hand was looking forward to the Tiesto concert on New Years night. We had everything planned and ready, only thing missing was Nats visa to Canada. I don’t need a visa because I have the Canadian citizenship.

Around a week ago we sent Nats passport and all the forms and papers needed to the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi (local embassy don’t do visas). Visa costs like KD18 while DHL with a return airway bill costs KD55. So thats KD73 for a one time entry visa.

Today Nat got her passport back and guess what? They refused to give her a visa! Their reason was the following:

You have not satisfied me that you meet the requirements of Regulation 179; that you would leave Canada at the end of the temporary period if you were authorized to enter. In reaching this decision I considered your ties to your country of residence/citzenship balanced against factors which might motivate you to stay in Canada.

In summary, they think Nat will basically go to Canada, tear up her passport and request asylum. How did they come up with this conclusion? Its because she is Lebanese. How much more discriminating can they be? No one called her to talk to her, no one called her in for an interview, they didn’t even care that her husband is a Canadian.

I am extremely pissed off now because it basically means I can no longer go to Canada unless I am alone, which isn’t going to happen as long as I am married. Tomorrow I will be calling up the embassy and giving someone there a piece of my mind. No way am I gonna accept the fact that some stranger all the way in the UAE is going to ruin my Christmas!

What I realized today (its probably a generalization but still) is that before the invasion the people who came to work in Kuwait liked living in Kuwait. Today most of the people who come to work in Kuwait really don’t like living here.