2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

I love hating Wataniya. Have you watched the Wataniya TV commercial where there is a guy walking on a red carpet that keeps rolling open in front of him? Well Kuwaitism found an ad from Taiwan by a company called Mio with the exact same concept. Check it out. [WMV 2.3MB] (right click and save as)

Update: Just uploaded a much higher quality video.

Update 2: Ok, sadly it seems Mio might have copied the ad from Wataniya. I just did a bit of research and I found out the Mio A700 which is the phone advertised in this commercial was released last month but was first announced in October. Wataniya on the other hand released their ad in October, but they must have worked on it atleast a month before. This means that Mio copied the ad from Wataniya.. and managed to do a better production job.

Update 3: Here is the video of the Wataniya TV ad. [WMV 1.14MB]

A couple of days ago I was contacted by Bazaar magazine and was offered a chance to have my own “B-Sides” page in the magazine every month where I could post mini reviews on anything related to Kuwait. At first the idea sounded really interesting, combining blog with print sounded like an excellent opportunity. But the more I thought about it the more I realized.. excellent opportunity for what? What could I gain with this?

Increased Readership
Bazaar prints around 25,000 copies a month while 248AM gets more then 3 times that amount of visitors every month and we are still growing. Bazaar readers would only read around 4 mini reviews by me every month while my blog readers would read at least 4 mini posts by me a day. My sites url would be advertised in that Bazaar page but from those 25,000 readers how many would actually think about checking out my site? When was the last time anyone saw a url in a magazine and then checked it out online.. it happens but just not that often.

Digital to Print
At first this sounded interesting, but then I realized isn’t that a step backward? Isn’t print trying to get online? Shouldn’t Bazaar start thinking about getting online instead? WIRED magazine have a small 2 page section where they print interesting posts from the web but I never liked that section but thats besides the point, WIRED can do whatever they want since their whole Magazine is published for free online anyway.

The Money
The first offer I got was KD20 (yes two and one zero) a month. I calculated the amount of time and effort I would have to put extra every month to have at least 4 mini reviews of something interesting to do with Kuwait and I realized KD20 wouldn’t be worth my trouble at all. Bazaar were nice to say they would consider another amount I had in mind but if they had KD20 in their mind to begin with I doubt they would go that much higher.

The Magazine
Do I even like Bazaar? Not really. I do think its the best locally published magazine but thats because their competition is really crap. I pick up Bazaar once a month so I can skim through it quickly and see if there is anything interesting. I mostly don’t find anything worth reading and the magazine ends up in the trash or left on a food court table. I enjoy reading local blogs a lot more then I enjoy reading Bazaar thats for sure.

Who’s the boss?
When someone suggested to Zaydoun that he should hook up with one of the newspapers as a syndicated writer, Zaydoun replied saying “I am my own editor… I can’t imagine being subjected to deadlines and editorial controls!”.

So taking everything above into consideration, I sent an email back to Bazaar today morning thanking them for their kind offer but that I wasn’t interested. I think I made the right decision.

Just saw some spy shots of the upcoming Mercedes CL. I think it looks weird from the back while the front end looks like shit. Mercedes is really playing it safe when it comes to their car designs. [Link]

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After work I passed by PWC to pick up my Crunch which a reader of the blog was nice enough to get me from Camp Arifjan after reading my post about how Crunch isn’t available in Kuwait. 48 pieces, 24 regular chocolate Crunch and 24 white chocolate Crunch. I had 3 on my way back home and I think I overdosed on them so now I have to wait it out a bit so I can have some more. I love Crunch.

Pictures of a Murcielago Roadster accident that occurred in Dubai. Scroll down a bit to see the full set of pictures. [Link]

A portable application is a software program that you can carry around with you on a portable device, such as a USB flash drive and use on any computer without necessarily modifying that computer’s hard disk. [Link]

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Aramex have a new customer service manager because they want to fix all their problems. If you are having any problems or if you have any feedback or comments about their service then let them know about it so they can fix it. I know I had a lot so I sent them like 2 pages worth of problems with their solutions.

Send all your Shop & Ship feedback and comments directly to the customer service manager, her email is: [email protected]

Thanks

update: just replaced the hotmail email with her aramex email

I got a phone call yesterday from the owner of Choowy Goowy cookies, he wanted to reply to my post titled “Choowy Goowy Waiting List“. Basically it turns out the reason why I was told it would need two days for the cookies to get delivered was because the Choowy Goowy bakery was being renovated and they had stopped all orders for 1 week. The day I called asking for cookies they had just started delivery again and they had a long list of backorders they needed to complete. Part of the reason for the renovation is so they could accept customers who want to pick up the cookies themselves.

I then asked him about the fact that the person who I spoke to on the phone told me that I couldn’t order just 1 jar. He replied telling me that VIP customers could order 1 jar if they wanted to but new customers would have to order more. He told me they currently have only 1 delivery car and its difficult and time consuming to go deliver 1 jar in Fahaheel for example and another 1 jar in Kuwait City. He told me they are still a small bakery and they are growing slowly but steadily and they would get another car in the near future but for now they only have just one.

On another note I will soon be trying their Sorbet icecream, the owners of Choowy Goowy also have Boozah Boozah and they are working on some new receipes at the moment but once they are done they will send me a batch of their icecream to try out. Cookies in the winter, Icecream in the summer.. I can’t wait.

If you would like to place an order for cookies call 2626559

I was trying to find out if carrots were healthy for Geo our dog and I found the following list helpful and interesting.

* Apples (they contain potassium, which stimulates the immune system, and pepsin, which helps the stomach)
* Broccoli (rich in vitamins)
* Carrots (rich in vitamins, great treats to substitute for biscuits)
* Cabbage (rich in vitamins, good for digestive system and skin)
* Cucumber (good for teeth and bones due to potassium content; can combine with carrots to promote a healthy liver and kidneys; in juice form, a good diuretic … peel cucumbers unless organically grown)
* Celery (chopped or juiced; can help with arthritis)
* Garlic (removes waste from blood, can help repel fleas; use fresh garlic finely minced)
* Green beans (lightly steamed; healthy and low-cal treat)
* Parsley (can reduce allergy symptoms and aid kidney function; chop finely or boil parsley and add the juice over food)
* Kale (rich in antioxidants and can help reduce allergy symptoms)
* Spinach (very healthy; serve chopped)
* Bananas (in small quantity; a coveted treat)
* Olive oil (a tablespoon a day is good for skin and fur)

* Preparation suggestions: Many veggies can be served raw, lightly steamed or in juice form. For most vegetables such as broccoli and carrots, it is far better to steam them instead of serving raw for improved digestibility and nutritional value. Also, since dogs have small digestive tracts, you can puree vegetables to enable your pet to digest more. If you use canned vegetables, get the salt-free kinds.

* Organically grown benefits: Due to their smaller size and more compact body systems, pets can be more prone to the toxic effects of pesticide contamination than are people. So it is best to feed them produce that is organically certified, which also has higher nutritional value for everyone.

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Nat’s been using Skype to call and talk to her family and friends back in Lebanon and it works pretty cool and its also fairly cheap. The problem is that talking to your family using headphones and the Apple Powerbooks built in mic is a pretty dorky experience. So I decided to look around for a phone handset that would plug-in and work with the Mac. There are many handsets available but 99% of them only work with PCs. Even some handsets that were compatible with the Mac ended up lacking features the same phone would have if connected to the PC. The coolest Skype phone I found was a cordless Linksys and at $105 it wasn’t too expensive, the downside ofcourse was that it wasn’t Mac compatible. Finally I stumbled upon the IPEVO phone which is pictured above. It looked really cool, it was fully compatible with the Mac and it only cost $29. So I ordered a white one for myself and a black one for my sister. The phone also works with PC’s so thats a bonus. Once the handsets arrive next week I will take some pictures and post my feedback on them but so far it looks like a really great device.

Buy the white IPEVO phone from Amazon
Buy the black IPEVO phone from Amazon
Visit the IPEVO website

The cookies I ordered from Choowy Goowy yesterday are here! It arrived a lot quicker then I was expecting it to since the guy told me he would try to have it by the afternoon at the latest. Anyways, the cookies look delicious but I can’t touch them since they are not mine. I am trading these cookies for a box of Crunch chocolate. A reader who read my post on how Crunch isn’t available in the supermarkets anymore was able to get me a box of Crunch from a US army base here in Kuwait. I love Crunch.

I was just reading Zaydoun’s post on how he has been blogging for three years and it really brought back some good memories. You see, before it was just Zaydoun’s “Kuwait Unplugged” blog and qHate which was made up of me, Rampurple and Nibaq. qHate originally was Nibaqs idea and it started off as a blog about life in Kuwait but when the US decided to invade Iraq, qHate quickly turned into a war blog. We were posting on things that were going on in Kuwait like the sirens, the panics and the gas masks we even got the chance to stalk meet Wolf Blitzer and John Vause. It was a lot of interesting little things that showed people how everyone in Kuwait was living during this uncertain time. Checking my first post (2-2-03) now though I realized it was actually related to the war.. so now I am wondering if war blogging was part of the original plan… It was cool how me, Rampurple and Nibaq used to blog together in one blog and now we all have our own separate blogs. I keep telling Nibaq we were like a rock band that split up and all the members went solo.

In the end the site ended after we hit our peak, the war was over, there was barely anything to post about and only Rampurple was left posting and she finally also said goodbye. Maybe one day we will all be back together again, like a reunion..

This is an interesting surprise. Yesterday I posted my views on the Toot the Arab blog network and what I saw as problems with the way things were laid out. Well I just checked the site now and it looks like most of the problems are getting fixed. The first change you will notice when you check Toot now is that instead of 9 blogs being highlighted on top, you now only get 3. The second change and probably the most important one is the tootstream. No longer is it just a long boring list of blog names and post titles, the list now contains a brief snippet of what the post is about. This makes things a lot more interesting and more usable, even the post titles are now larger and more clearer… check it out. [Link]

Billy West (the voice of Fry, Dr. Zoidberg and others) releases more inside info. According to a post he made on his message board, Futurama is going to be renewed for television with 26 episodes. No word as to what network it will be on or which cast members will rejoin the show. [Link]

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For the past couple of years I have been forced to use Extensis Suitcase to manage the fonts on my Mac. There was one serious competitor and Extensis ended up acquiring it. Awhile back I found out Linotype released a beta version of their own font manager software called FontExplorer X. I went ahead and tried it out and it was a bit buggy and had some features missing so I removed it and continued using Suitcase. A couple of days ago Linotype released the final version of their software so I downloaded it and ever since then I haven’t gone back to Suitcase.

FontExplorer is wayyy faster, has more features, and best of all its fucking free! Its FREE! Suitcase costs $100 and I see no reason why I should pay that much for a software that doesn’t perform better then the free FontExplorer. So what I am trying to say here is if you are a designer and frustrated with Suitcase, download FontExplorer, its lightyears ahead and so much more cooler.. [Link]