2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

You can watch them for free on Google Videos. [Link]

[source waxy]

I just got a phone call from the Choowy Goowy delivery guy. I am getting 5 jars of cookies delivered to me before 5:30 courtesy of the Choowy Goowy owner. I will try all five flavors and then write a mini review of each and post them here on the blog. Could the readers who ordered some cookies after I posted about them last time leave some comments below on how they found them. Thanks.

Read the Choowy Goowy Review

Update: The cookies are here! They look nice and colorful in their packaging. Can’t touch them though until I go home and take a picture of them.

I past by Fantasy World at Souk Sharq today to see if they were still selling LEGO and it turned out they were. So I told them if they refused to sell me the LEGO Guy which I have been after for months I would tell everyone they were still selling Danish products. They ignored my threat and still refused to sell me LEGO Guy, so I decided I would tell on them. FANTASY WORLD STILL SELL LEGO!!

Remember how last week I was hoping they weren’t going to ban LEGO from the market because its a Danish product? Well yesterday I past by Sultan Center and went upstairs to the LEGO section and guess what? All the shelves where the LEGO used to be are empty now! They banned LEGO!! The dairy section downstairs also had no more Danish products that includes Lurpak, Puck and Three Cows. Whats next? Will they start banning products from countries who supported the Danish like the French and Germans? Would that mean no more BMWs and Mercedes? That would be really silly.

Yesterday me and Nat went to the supermarket and got the following: A box of Kellogg’s Cornflakes, a box of carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, fresh meat, chicken breast, Basmeti rice, eggs and KDD Yogurt. You would think this stuff was ours to eat but its actually for our dog who arrives tonight from Belgium. Its official, my dog will be eating healthier food then me! Geo will be on a raw meat diet which means no crappy canned dog food. Do you know what they make dog food out of? Stuff thats not fit for humans, meaning you know how hot dogs are made up of all the left over meat? Well dog food is stuff you can’t even make hot dogs out of! Its like junk food for dogs, they are convenient for dog owners because all you need to do to feed your dog is open up a can and dump it in his bowl. On the other hand raw meat is the best thing you can feed your dog, its what their bodies were meant to eat and digest. Before dogs started living with humans they used to live in the wild and hunt their food and eat it raw and its what any good breeder feeds his dogs.

When I first asked my breeder what he fed his dogs he told me raw meat I was shocked and disgusted. I was always told raw meat was bad for the dog and this guy was telling me thats all he fed the dogs. So I did some online research and it turns out feeding dogs raw meat is very common amongst breeders and has recently started to gain popularity in the US with pet owners. I read an article on Salon.com that talked about the raw food diet and how new places have popped up all over the US where they deliver you raw meat daily for your dog. It turns out vets don’t recommend raw meat because it keeps the dog healthier meaning less vet visits. From what I read raw food also makes your dogs breath smell better and his poop smaller and more solid. And if every now and then you give your dog meat on a bone his teeth will also be better.

So if you have a dog or are thinking about getting a dog then think about feeding him healthier food, think about going in the way of raw meat. There are a ton of articles online about this and my favorite would be the Salon one. There is also a book you can get from the Kuwait Bookshop in Muthana Complex (Kuwait City) called “All About Dogs”. It costs only KD1.300 and is written by a breeder who has been raising dogs forever. Inside the book he talks in detail about the raw meat diet and lists you all the advantages and disadvantages of it. The ISBN of the book is 1899606327 and you can find it on Amazon for $3.43 but if you live in Kuwait its just easier to pass by the bookshop. If you want to read the Salon article you can also do that by clicking [here]

I just checked my email today morning and found an interesting offer by Jazeera Airways. Two return flight tickets to Beirut plus a one night stay at a 4 star hotel for only KD129. Not a bad deal and not a bad idea at all. [Link]

For nearly a year now I was using my Sony AV3000 universal remote to control my living room setup made up of a TV, DVD player, Xbox, AV Receiver and Tivo. Instead of having multiple remotes spread out over my table the idea was to replace them all with one device. This idea failed since although my Sony universal remote was great, it wasn’t as practical as the Tivo or Xbox remote. So I mostly used the Sony remote to control my TV, DVD player and AV Receiver but continued using my original Tivo remote (which many say is the best remote design ever) to control my Tivo and the original Xbox remote to control my Xbox.

A few months back a friend of mine Rami ordered the Harmony 880 remote. He had been a Harmony user long before Logitech acquired them and as soon as the 880 was released he placed an order for one. He kept telling me how great the Harmony remotes were and how the new 880 was just really the best remote he had ever had. Finally I decided to order one and I got it last week. I have to say Rami was right, this is one of the best remotes I have ever had!

The Harmony 880 is a universal remote on steroids. It has a number of impressive features the most important being the colored screen and the fact it uses rechargeable Li-on batteries which you can charge by placing the remote on the dock it came with. To setup the remote you need to create an account on the Harmony website and then transfer the date to your remote using the included USB cable. I don’t know why they did it like that since I would have preferred having a local software on my computer to control my remote from. If you don’t have Internet then the 880 remote would be useless for you since you NEED to have an Internet connection to set it up the first time.

The colored screen on the remote is a really cool feature but the quality is similar to older mobile phone screens like the Sony Ericsson T68i. Setting up the remote online was a breeze and using the Activities button I was easily able to enjoy watching TV right away. The Activities button allows you to tell the remote what you want to do. Do you want to watch a DVD? Click on the “Watch DVD” button and the remote will turn on the DVD player, AV receiver and TV for you, it will then put the TV on the right channel and choose the correct input on the AV receiver. Want to watch Tivo? Click on the “Watch Tivo” button and the remote will turn the TV on, put it on Video 2 and then turn the AV receiver on and change the input to AUX. All this with a click of a button. Although things look simple, for hardcore users you have a whole amount of detailed control underneath this easy to use interface. How long does your TV take to warm up before it would accept commands? 2 seconds? You can teach the remote that. Do you want to change the on screen icons to your own design? You can do that. This remote is just loaded with a ton of features like that, little but important stuff for people who want more control.

The most important deciding factor in a good remote is its ergonomics. How does the remote feel in the hand? How easy is it to use? Is it practical? Well the Harmony 880 remote feels like the Tivo remote with the main important controls located in the middle while other lesser used controls are spread out on top and bottom. The 880 has a motion sensor so when you pick up the remote it automatically lights up the screen and all the buttons.. no more fumbling around in the dark trying to find the pause button. I wouldn’t say the 880 is better ergonomically then the Tivo remote but it really is very close to being as good. I mean, I have stopped using both my Tivo and Xbox remotes in favor of the 880.

I could go on and on in more details about why this remote is THE remote to own but there are tons of other reviews online that do that. I just want to back up all these reviews and say that everything you read about this remote is true. I love it, it looks good, its easy to use and hold, its fully featured and it allows me to do so much. I couldn’t believe it when this remote gave me features my original TV remote didn’t have! The only negative thing about the remote is the fact that you have to use their website to set it up. Maybe under usual circumstances its not a big deal but since I have been having Internet problems at home I am forced to take my remote with my laptop to starbucks or work and set it up from there. Not very practical and this is why this perfect remote will get 4 stars and not 5.

Buy the Harmony 880 from Amazon for $224

Update: If I had to review the remote again I would give is a 2.5 out of 5 because I am having a lot of problems with Harmony’s web based software. Their servers are slow and I am getting a lot of time out errors everytime I need to change an option on the remote.

Internet addict that is. I realized in the past few days that I can’t be stuck in Kuwait without Internet. When I go on vacation its not that big a problem since I psychologically prepare myself that I will be without Internet for a certain amount of days. Being suddenly stuck without Internet at home though has turned me into a wreck. I feel stupid without being up to date on the latest news, gadgets and gossip. I feel disoriented and grumpy without Internet. I am also losing my temper quicker and getting stressed out a lot easier. I hope I get Internet back at home soon or I think I am really going to lose it.

We had no clue where the hamster was so to find him we decided to put 3 nuts bunched up together in every room and close all the doors. If we went into a room and found the nuts missing it would mean our hamster would be in that room. We did our rounds every 1 hour going room to room checking to see if any of the nuts were missing to no avail. Finally at around 12AM I decided to do my final round check before I went to sleep. While looking around downstairs for our hamster Nat yells that she found the hamster upstairs. Turns out she went into the bedroom to get ready to sleep and the hamster was just sitting there in the corner. When he saw her he got up as if he was glad he was found. We put him back in his cage and he spent like 5 minutes drinking water. I have no clue how he got up to the bedroom from downstairs where his cage was. Also the bedroom is the coldest room in the house since we have two windows open there and its windy and raining outside so I think he was glad to be back in his warm cage. Tomorrow I am going to get some steel wires and use those to tie his door closed although I doubt after this he would ever want to leave his cage again. I am so glad we found him.

Finally got my Mac to connect to my phones GPRS connection. I spent like 30 minutes now trying everything and for a while I thought it must be because both my PowerMac and Nats Powerbook are running OS10.4 but then when I tried it on my clamshell iBook which was running OS10.3 it still didn’t work. After a bit of playing around I found the solution and decided to post it here incase someone in the future does a google search looking for help.

If you have a Sony Ericsson K700 or K750 and are trying to get you Apple computer to connect to your phones GPRS connection using bluetooth, when choosing modem type choose “Ericsson R520 28.8”. I was getting a “No carrier detected” error message while using the default “Ericsson Infrared” selection for the modem which used to work perfectly fine with my older Sony Ericssons T610 and T630.

I am back online from Starbucks. Seems my phone problem at home won’t get solved till work resumes on Sunday. Anyway I was just checking my email and I found a video of Geo which was sent by his breeder in Belgium. He looks really cool and bigger then I expected he would be. Check the video out. [MOV 460KB]

Only a few days before our dog Geo is set to arrive our hamster has gone missing. He managed to escape from his cage and now is somewhere in our two floor apartment. We have laid out nuts for him all over the house and we are now waiting for him to come out from hiding…

Update: So far our hamsters disappearance is looking like a crossover of the tv shows Prison Break and CSI. The way our hamster escaped is just unbelievable and now we are trying to find him or traces of him using flashlights. We need to find him before our dog arrives or else there is a chance he might get eaten or something.

A friend called me up and asked me if I wanted to do anything. I was like yeah, I want to get online. So now I am at Starbucks at Palms and I am surfing the web for free using Zajil.

I don’t have internet at home which sucks. Something is still wrong with the phonelines in my area. I am posting with my old Palm Tungsten PDA. Finally found a use for it.