2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003We went to Beirut to film a TV show about the city’s newly vibrant culinary and cultural scene. Then the bombs started falling, and we could only stand on the barricades of our hotel balcony and watch it all disappear — again.
A nice piece by Anthony Bourdain at Salon.com [Link]
note: to read the full article you need to click on the sponsor logo at the end of the first page.
I got a phonecall from the USWS owner yesterday asking my opinion on something. At the moment when you sign up with USWS they ask you if you want your mailbox checked once a week, twice a month or once a month. He wanted to know if we (USWS users) would rather have it this way..
Instead of a set frequency, WE get to decide when we want our stuff shipped. Say you order a bunch of stuff from Amazon, they ship it to your USWS mailbox as 3 boxes. 2 boxes arrive today and the third is still on its way. Once the third package arrives (say the next day), you go to your USWS account, select the 3 packages and click on ship now. Your packages then get shipped the same day. Currently if you tell them to ship a package right now you pay $20, they will be removing that charge.
Another example, say a magazine arrived to your mailbox today but you are planning to order stuff from Amazon next week. You can decide to keep the magazine in your mailbox until your Amazon packages arrive and then you can have them shipped all together and that way you save on shipping.
Another example is say you have 5 packages in your mailbox, you can decide to ship 3 now and leave the other 2 there to be shipped later whenever you want.
Am I being clear here? Basically they will get rid of the shipping frequencies and the 20$ ship now fee. They will let you decide when YOU want your packages shipped and then ship it when you tell them to. I personally find this a lot cooler since its faster and more affordable for us. Instead of having them ship 1 magazine and have me pay KD2.5 for it, I would rather attach the magazine to another heavier package and save on shipping. I also love the idea of having my packages shipped the same day they arrive if I want and at no extra cost.
If you are a USWS account holder please leave your feedback below. Let them know if you prefer this method or prefer the older one.
The past week I received 3 emails asking me where I am hosted. 248AM is hosted on a friends server but 248PM is hosted on Dreamhost. For anyone here who is thinking about starting a blog or is looking for a webhost for their domains then you should consider DreamHost. They currently have a really good offer going on where for only $9.95 a month you get 20GB of webspace with 1TB of bandwidth every month and the ability to host an unlimited number of domains with them. Setting up WordPress (the software that runs this blog) is very easy with DreamHost, its just a click of a button, plus if you sign up with them now they give you a free domain name so you can have your blog up and running for only $9.95.
Use he coupon code 60DOLLARS when signing up to get an instant $60 discount.
It’s really hard to find a better deal so check them out and don’t forget to use the coupon code to get your $60 discount. [Link]
This is really annoying. Its the third time its happened to me, even posted about it last time. I scratched my cornea and it sucks.
Some really interesting questions answered. [Link]
www.IE7.com… heh I smell a lawsuit
My brother is online now from Turkey. He left Lebanon yesterday with the Canadian Embassy on a crappy ferry boat and today, 20 hours later he arrived to Turkey. They had to sleep on the floor on the ferry and it was a fucked trip. He is now at a highschool stadium where surprisingly they have WIFI. This is what he had to say about the evacuation so far:
20 hours on a fucking ferry boat
it fucking sucks
seriously
it’s so bad
i will show you pictures when i get to kuwait
you will think i was on an african refugee boat
they’re so unorganized
those who aren’t going to canada, have to wait for the rest of the people to go to the airport to pick up luggage
then we have to find our way to Istanbul
i hate canada
update: my brother was very tired and exhausted when he wrote that.
Yesterday I was invited for another test drive by Alghanim Automotive. I was hoping they would give me some small crappy car so I could give it a bad review and show everyone that if the car sucked I would say it sucked. Sadly, that didn’t happen. Yesterday I took the new Cadillac BLS for a drive and it was far from being crappy.
I picked up a gorgeous silver top of the line BLS from the dealer and drove down to the Gulf Road. The BLS is the smallest car Cadillac makes and the one I drove came with a V6 2.8L Turbo engine pumping out 250HP so it was fast. As soon as I hit the Gulf Road I got a call from a friend who had spotted me. He asked me if I was turning into Jermey Clarkson and he then asked what car I was driving since it looked really cool. Now this came from someone who drives an M3 so you can imagine how good the car must look. Pictures actually don’t do justice to the hard edged geometrically cut car so you need to see it in person to really appreciate its beauty.
I closed the phone with my friend and blasted down the Gulf Road. The Cadillac BLS I was driving came with a 6-speed automatic and paddle shift. I am used to the F1 style paddle shift where you use your fingers to change gear but the Cadillac BLS is the one where you use your thumbs instead. It felt awkward at first but I quickly got the hang of it. The interior seems to follow the styling cues of the new Cadillac Escalade which is a really good thing since it means its very un-American. Everything felt very plush and sophisticated and I just love that in a car.
After a long drive I parked the car and took some shots of the exterior and interior. When I was done I drove back to the dealership and handed them the keys. Cadillac really have come a long way when it comes to aesthetics. There is no other car in the market that looks like a Cadillac, its got a style all on its own. The only downside I could think of with the BLS is the engine sound. I would have preferred a louder grunt from a 250HP engine but I guess many people would rather have a quiet engine than a loud one.
The price of the fully loaded Cadillac BLS is KD11,995 which makes its more affordable than a similarly specced BMW or Mercedes. Its a pretty cool car for a sedan.
From Sultan Center to the car, its already melted.
From the bakala to my office, its already melted.
Having chocolate this summer just won’t happen.
You guys remember Shark of Kuwait? I think the last post about him got the highest amount of comments so far on this blog. Well he redesigned his website recently and added more stuff. I personally prefer his old site but never the less check it out. [Link]
KTM magazine is looking for outspoken individuals of diverse backgrounds and differing opinions to write articles for the Kuwaiti community. You may be based in kuwait or outside of kuwait. Being already established here in Kuwait we intend to expand regionally through-out the Middle East. Among all the Arab world Kuwaiti media has been rated top in freedom of expression. We at KTM would like to see how far the envelope can be pressed as far as opinionated writing. Writers fee starts from $100. If this interests you please contact [email protected]
Was just reading the news headlines on Naharnet and the first one I read was:
The Israeli army warns it will destroy 10 buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs for each rocket that lands on Haifa
Then a couple of headlines later I read the following:
Six rockets hit Israeli town of Haifa, Al Jazeera TV
So 6×10=60, do we even have 60 buildings in Beirut?
I found this really cool pouch which I use to put my my ipod cable, usb cable and USB bluetooth adapter in. Problem is both Nat and Rampurple think its girlish. I think its cool.
Why is it nearly impossible for an expat to get the Kuwaiti citizenship? I am saying nearly impossible because I know of some Lebanese who were given the Kuwaiti nationality which means its not totally impossible.
I wasn’t born in Kuwait (my brother and sister were) but I did grow up here and my parents have been in Kuwait since the early 70s. So why is it I can’t become a Kuwaiti citizen? If I was living anywhere else for this long I would have already been a citizen of that country by now. Here on the other hand I still need a visa and a sponsor so I could just stay in Kuwait.
If today was July 24, 1990 and a week from now Iraq was going to invade I would stand ground and try to fight off the Iraqis alongside the Kuwaitis. I like Kuwait, I like NBK, I like KDD, I like oil, I like Entertainment City and I like Mama Aneesa, so why can’t I become a Kuwaiti? [Link]
update: There is now a further discussion taking place in the [Forum]