2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

I just got back to the office after doing the import papers for my puppy Geo who is coming next month. I got to the ministry at 8:15AM and I was done with all my papers by 9, and this includes getting lost for 20 minutes trying to find the second place I had to go to. I have to say this was the quickest paperwork I have ever done.

Thanks to Nibaqs help, I was able to find the Public Authority for Agriculture and Fisheries Resources in Rabya on google maps. Once I got inside though it was super confusing. Too many signs and all in Arabic and all pointing to places I have no clue what they are about. I drove in a bit and then decided to stop at one of the dozens of shack like buildings spread out all over the place. I can’t believe how lucky I was because the shack I went into turned out to be the right one! There was a guy sitting at the reception desk, I went up to him and showed him my dogs health certificate and told him I wanted to import my dog. He went into his boss and came back out telling me I needed to go to the “seegil”. I had no clue what it was so the guy offered to come with me. We drove in my car a few buildings away and went into another shack, we told the guy at the desk there I wanted to import a dog, he took out a paper, filled it in and gave it to us. I then drove back to the first shack I went into, the boss signed the paper and told me I had to go to Rai behind Landmark and get the final import paper from there. And that was it!

I drove to Rai and got lost finding the place, finally I spoke to Nibaq on the phone and he told me where the place was but told me I would have problem finding parking. I got to the place and guess what, the parking was empty, I parked right in front of the main gate and went in. It took 10 minutes worth of paper work at this second place, some kind of government animal health center and I was done. The whole thing also cost me just one stamp worth KD2!

Such a weird experience, it felt tooo easy…

TivoKuwait.com is up and running with lots of juciy info on getting Tivo running in Kuwait. The site is run by Tivo Guy, Rami. [Link]

Three men, an American a Lebanese and a Syrian, were asked about “their opinion on electricity blackout”

The American responded: “What’s a blackout?”
The Lebanese responded: “What’s electricity?”

The Syrian responded…….”What’s opinion?”

Serenity
Expected it to be way better. Didn’t like the actors, they felt very B rated. Movie started off slow but got better near the end.

Broken Flowers
Lolita scene was the best. Bill Murray rocked. I liked the movie although the ending could have been better.

Lord of War
Didn’t like it that much. Felt it was too long. Didn’t find it interesting. Production was really good.

Saw II
I preferred the original Saw. sequel wasn’t as freaky or shocking as the original. Some of the scenes were really lame.

Oliver Twist
The original movie and book were really great. I played Oliver once in a play! This remake sucked. They didn’t even have the song “Food Glorious Food”!

The Brothers Grimm
I was expecting it to be more fairytale like and so was disappointed when I saw the movie. It was kinda slow and not as mystical as it could have been. I liked the costumes and settings in the woods though.

City of God
It was enjoyable to watch. Didn’t find it heartbreaking nor life changing. It was a good movie just not as good as some people made it out to be. I bought this movie on DVD.

I have been reading about the controversy behind the website ChuckNorrisFacts.com and Chuck Norris for the past week but I only just now checked the Chuck Norris Facts and I have to say they are hilarious! When I was back in university me and my best friend started spreading a rumor around campus that Chuck Norris was coming to Lebanon to do a concert so it was fun reading stuff other people made up. Check it out, my favorite is “If you can see Chuck Norris, he can see you. If you can’t see Chuck Norris, you may be only seconds away from death.” [Link]

For the people who found the “Don’t press the button” site anoying, I present to you the best blonde joke ever. [Link]

A lot of cool TV shows ended this year. I just read on CNN now that Malcolm in the Middle and That 70’s Show will not be coming back next year. Sucks. [Link]

I thought it was going to be something silly at first and it turned out I was right, but its still very funny, it keeps going and going and going. [Link]

[source Digg]

In one of the forums I usually visit somone had a post asking for everyones home theater setup. This is mine:

TV: Panasonic TX-33P100X
Receiver: Kenwood KRF-V8881D
DVD Player: Sony DVP-NS575P
Speakers: Jamo X870 for left and right. Paradigm CC370 for center. Two OEM Kenwood speakers for surround (they came with an older amp). No subwoofer (Jamo’s have 10″ woofers built in)
Universal Remote: Sony RM-AV3000
Tivo: Series 1 Philips with 120GB drive

Future plans:
– Need to upgrade rear speakers to Paradigm ADP-170
– Need to get a Definitive Technology SuperCube Subwoofer
– Need to upgrade my TV to a Sony 34″ HDTV CRT
– Need to upgrade receiver, probably with a Denon

Click here for a largeer picture of my setup

Whats your home theater setup?

Update: I just replace my Kenwood receiver with the Denon AVR-2106 and the Sony universal remote with the Harmony 880.

Dunkin Donuts is opening a branch in Souk Salmiya near City Center. This the second branch I know of thats opening. The first is the main Salmiya branch. Any others?

Someone told me that ALL stores are not allowed to be open in these 3 days of mourning. I heard that any store that is caught open would be fined KD1000. Supermarkets and grocery stores are an exception. So why is it when on my way to City Center in Salmiya yesterday did I find a bunch of shops open along the way? One of the stores for example was the laundromat “5 ASEC” (or something like that). I also heard that Costa and Columbus cafe were open on the first day. Yesterday Johnny Rockets, Texas Chicken and Subway were open in Salmiya.

What is allowed to open and what isn’t? I think nothing should be allowed to open just supermarkets and grocery stores. If I was in charge I would have gone around yesterday smacking people with fines and shutting down their stores.

For those of you who watch any of the CSI shows (Las Vegas, Miami, NY) you might have noticed that they play some really cool music on the show. Its mostly drum n bass and downbeat but you also get some other styles. I usually used to recognize most of the good songs they played but now recently they have been playing some really good stuff I had never heard of before. So, I did a bit of googling and I found this website that has the names of songs from each episode. Disappointingly I didn’t find the song I was looking for this time around, its from CSI NY episode 21. But I wasn’t put down by that, they still have hundreds of other songs listed. Check it out [Link]

Just finished watching the first 2 episodes of the show 24 season 5. All I can say is wow! Unfucking believable. There is no show out there that is even close to being as good. Episode 1 of season 5 is just shocking, I can’t say why because it would be a spoiler. I just have to say its amazing. Jack Bauer is really fucking cool!

Path Finder 4 is out now for the Mac. Its a software that you can use to replace the default Finder. It provides you with a lot more options and features, its basically everything the default Finder should have been.

This is what one reviewer had to say:

Path Finder is a browser-style file manager developed by a single person that absolutely embarrasses the Mac OS X Finder with its huge feature set. Version 1.0 of Path Finder shipped in 2001 after only 6 months of development. Today’s version 3 is miles ahead of that, and the upcoming version 4 is like the Final Cut Pro of file management. It’s a file browsing tour de force.

Sadly its not free, you get a 21 day trial period but then you got to choke up the cash. Its worth a test drive though. [Link]

The shining history of leaders, particularly those who had a great impact on the destiny of their peoples and whose achievements stand as objects of praise for successive generations, is very difficult to be summarized in a few pages. History cannot but proudly record their leadership in achieving the development, welfare and prosperity of their nations.

His Highness Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, AMIR of Kuwait, is one of those leaders who did their best to serve both their people and nation.

Hence, he is beloved and greatly appreciated by everyone as the leader of the state and the shepherd of the community at critical times in the modern history of Kuwait.

It is, therefore, worthy to record his success as Chief of Public Security in the Oil Regions, Head of the Finance Department, Minister of Finance and Economy, Prime Minister, Crown prince, and finally as AMIR of a country made up of a small area and population, yet great in future aspirations. When describing the period in which Kuwait managed to become a truly civilized and democratic state, this was the true rule of the cherished Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah. We are going to mention His Highness’s way of thinking, education, and diplomacy, in addition to his career, leadership activities and his future aspirations.