2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Today I filled up my brand new Case Logic CD wallet with some really good music. I went through my CD collection and added some great classics, stuff I haven’t heard in a while and stuff that I should be hearing more often. Here is a list of all 48 CDs in the same order as they are in the wallet.

Jimi Hendrix – The Ultimate Experience
Korn – Life is Peachy
Korn – Korn
Nine Inch Nails – And All That Could Have Been
Nirvana – Bleach
Rage Against the Machine – The Battle of Los Angeles
Smashing Pumpkins – Adore
Tool – Aenima
U2 – Best of 1980 – 1990
Theater of Tragedy – Velvet Darkness they Fear
Lost Highway – Soundtrack
Nine Inch Nails – Downward Spiral
Nirvana – Nevermind
Nirvana In Utero
LF – Home Made Mix
Rage Against the Machine – Renegade
Nine Inch Nails – The Fragile (Double CD)
Audioslave – Audioslave
Velvet Revolver – Contraband
Rage Against the Machine – Evil Empire
Ministry – Filth Pig
Pet Shop Boys – Complete Singles Collection
Pink Floyd – The Wall (Disc 2)
Pearl Jam – Ten
Dj Danger Mouse – The Grey Album
Stereo MC’s – Dj Kicks
Kid Loco – Kill Our Darlings
Kid Loco – A Grand Love Story (Double CD)
Ian Simmonds – Return of X
Ian Simmonds – Last States of Nature
Tosca – Opera
Tosca – Suzuki
Comfort Zone Volume 3 – Various
Comfort Zone Volume 4 – Various
Lounge Conjunction – Various
Lemon Jelly – lemonjelly.ky
Dzihan & Kamien – Freaks & Icons
Dzihan & Kamien – Grand Riserva
Underworld – Beaucoup Fish
Dj Shadow – Entroducing…
Vikter Duplaix – Dj Kicks
Thievery Corporation – Dj Kicks
Thievery Corporation – Abductions & Reconstructions
Thievery Corporation – Sounds From The Thievery Hi-Fi
Lounge Conjuction 2 – Various
Truby Trio – Dj Kicks

From the above list the CDs I would like to highlight as simply the best ever are both the Tosca CDs and the Dzihan & Kamien CDs, plus the Nirvana Nevermind Album and Audioslave.

How much do people tip in general here? I know in the States people generally go by the 15% rule. Here I usually give a tip of around 10%. If the bill is over 5KD but under 10KD I would tip 1/2 a dinar. If the bill is between 10KD and 30KD, I would tip between 1 to 2KD. If the waiter is Lebanese I double the tip. If I know the waiter for many years like at Ceasers where I have been visiting for over 20 years, then the tip is usually 2KD for a 10KD bill. The reason I don’t go with the 15% rule is because 10% is easier to calculate. How much do you tip?

I was reading Puss-In-Boots blog and she said she loves to collect rare stuff. But she didn’t say what stuff she collected. I know Nibaq likes to collect toy figurines, but what else does everyone collect? I personally collect 2 things. Wired Magazines (I have every issue since 5.01 and my oldest is 3.12), and also videogame systems. So since today is cleaning Firday, I decided to take out and shoot all my systems and then wipe the dust off before I put them back into the cabinets. Below is a list of all the systems I currently own and they link to their pictures.

Atari Jaguar
Atari Lynx
Coleco Vision
Commodore 64
Commodore VIC 20
Dingoo A320
Game & Watch – Chef
Game & Watch – Donkey Kong Jr.
Game & Watch – Mario Bros.
Microsoft Xbox
Microsoft Xbox 360
MSX2 (Sakhr)
NEO-GEO AES
Nintendo 64
Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS Lite
Nintendo Gameboy SP
Nintendo Gamecube
Nintendo Wii
Panasonic 3DO
Sega Dreamcast
Sega Gamegear
Sony Playstation 1
Sony Playstation 2
Sony Playstation 3
Sony PSP
Speak & Spell
Super Nintendo
Super Simon

I still have a couple of systems I would like to own, mainly a Nintendo Virtual Boy, a Sega Nomad and a Sega Saturn.

Before I got married and moved into my own apartment, I didn’t have any room to display the stuff in my old room so I had them all under my bed. Now though since I have my own place I have them all displayed in my cabinet (1,2) with the boxes and some accessories in the drawers and closests (1,2,3,4).

So what do you guys collect?

I am soooo jealous. Puss-In-Boots just got a brand new Grendizer GX-40S complete set. To make things worst she took some really nice pictures just to tease us all with!

I can’t believe my luck. Around a month ago, a guy took some lego people, painted them black, gave them tiny ipods and then put them on a bright green background and sold these displays for 17$. He was copying the iPod ads and it came out really good. He only made 300 so by the time I got to the site they were sold out. No problem, he said I could sign up to his mailing list and once he makes some new ones he will send out and email and I can buy them. So I just woke up and I am checking my mail and I find one from podbrix. So I go to the website and this times theme is Steve Jobs giving a Keynote speech. Most of you won’t know what this is but basically Steve Jobs (the top guy at Apple) gives speeches and introduces new Apple products at these Keynotes during Apple Expos. So this time the guy is mimicking Steve Jobs giving a speech. So I click on buy now and turns out the guy already sold out all 300 pieces! Now I have to wait for his next version. Sucks.

I was at Sultan Center today doing some shopping when we passed by the CD wallet stand upstairs in the electronics section. I currently have 2 Case Logic CD wallets. One fits 20CDs and the other I think 200. I bought them ages ago and I remember they weren’t cheap. The 200CD one I bought from a shop that was closing down in Lebanon and he was selling everything like really cheap, I paid $40 for it and I remember that was a really good deal for it back then. So I am standing at the stand and I check the prices, KD1.5 for a Case Logic wallet that holds 16CDs and KD2.5 for a wallet that holds 48CDs. I was a bit shocked, I always passed by the Case Logic stands in stores like Virgin and stuff but I never really stopped to check out the prices. And now I am standing there wondering why I am using my very old 20CDs wallet that has pockets inside that are ripped and shit when for KD2.5 I could have a brand new wallet that holds more then double the amount of CDs. So I went ahead and bought it. Now I am gonna check out bigger sized wallets for my computer CDs. I have hundreds of CDs stacked up, fuck knows whats on them but I cant bare myself to throw them out. So now I might just put them in a case and shove them into the back of the closet. I took a picture of my 2 old Case Logic wallets and my new one next to each other. Note that all 3 cases have different logos. Here is the picture.

On Monday it will be my agencies 140th year anniversary. All the agencies branches all over the world will be celebrating the anniversary together. It will be a 24 hour event, every agency in every timezone will celebrate at 12:00PM their local time. Rumors have it that our whole agency here will be going on a boat trip and having lunch on board. Sounds nice.. except I fucking have motion sickness. I get sick if I am sitting in a back seat of a car, on a plane, and especially on a boat! I need to pop a few pills of some anti motion sickness drugs. Anyone got a recommended brand? Its got to be strong and I will probably take 3 times the recommended dosage just to be safe.

Passed by Salmiya’s Jewels (Jawharet Salmiya) yesterday night for dinner. Its a Shawerma place I frequent often because of the lack of other decent Shawerma places in the area. The Shawerma place is located on a corner of the building next to the Lime Light boutique in Salem Al Mubarek street. Its not a big place but the Shawerma guy is very friendly and nice. They don’t have meat Shawerma only chicken. They give you two options for the bread, you can either have a hot dog bun which is my favorite or the regular bread. Price of the Shawerma is 250fils and they sell cans of softdrinks for 100fils. They have Shani available. The garlic is pretty good and strong and be-worn, it will leave your breath stinky for the next couple of hours unless taken care of. The place although doesnt look it, is pretty safe and clean to eat at. I have eaten there numerous of times and never gotten sick. There is a small seating place outside but its not very comfortable. The place doesnt have much competition around if any. The closest Shawerma places to him are Kurdo which is down the road towards McDonalds, and this other unknown place in an alley accross the street from Marina Mall. Over all the place gets a 3 out of 5. Its a decent score for a shawerma place in this range.

Here are two pictures of the place:
Picture 1
Picture 2

Thanks to BusyNow for the heads up. Amazon.com is now allowing you to preorder your Sony PSP value pack for a price of $250 (KD73). The value pack includes a 32MB Memory Stick Duo, headphones with a remote control, a battery pack, and a movie/music/video game sample UMD. Sony is also tossing in a special UMD-version of the film Spider-Man 2 with the first one million PSP Value Packs sold. So preorder your PSP now, this is the link.

This is my order:
1 of Sony Playstation Portable (PSP) Value Pack
Sony Computer Entertainment; @ $249.99 each

1 of PSP Ridge Racer
Namco; @ $39.99 each

——-
Item(s) Subtotal: $289.98
Shipping & Handling: $5.48
Total Before Tax: $295.46
Tax: $25.48

TOTAL: $320.94

Update: Amazon has stopped the preordering. It seems the first batch of PSPs on Amazon have already been preordered.

Wooohooo, this was a bit of a shock to me but today I got an email from FILE Magazine telling me one of my photos will be added to their collection. So I go to their website and their it is, my photo of the Kuwait Towers on their website.. as a featured file! Thats such a compliment since the pictures on that site are really beautiful and having one of my pictures up with them in the collection is seriously the best.

Here is a screenshot of their main page
Here is a permanant link to my picture in their file
Here is a link to FILE Magazine

How could I forget to post about this. Apple announced new iPods today as expected. The new iPods include:

iPod Mini
– New 6GB Model. $249
– 4GB Model. $199
– Up to 18hrs Battery Life
– 4 Colors. No more gold, and the pink, blue and green are still there but they are now more vibrant. Silver still the same.

iPod Photo
– 30GB. $349
– 60GB. $449

20GB iPods ($299) remain. The 40GB iPod appears to have been discontinued.

So sadly, no extremely new colors for the ipod mini, and no color screen also. For more details visit Apple.com.

I was just about to leave the office to go home when I decided to check CNN for some news. Turns out Korn’s guitarist has found God and will be leaving the band. I was just listening to them all day today on the road and I find this freaky. Korns, Life is Peachy album is one of my favorites and this news is shocking. I don’t understand what finding God has to do with leaving the band. Anyway I got to go home, here is the link to the CNN article.

I passed by Mac & More today in Galleria 2000. The place was closed but the storefront is all glass so I could see what was inside. A couple of things grabbed my attention. First, the store has a large sign-age outside saying “Apple Center”. Then on the far right of that sign in small it says “Mac & More”. So ummm.. if the store is called Mac & More shouldn’t that be the largest and highlighted? Secondly the place does not match the official Apple Stores design. Thirdly they are using a red colored apple logo..?! Finally the place is tiny! Like ultra small. My pakistani barbershop is bigger.. and i am not being sarcastic here! I looked inside I could see 1 G5 powermac with an Apple display, 2 imacs, and a bunch of ipods on the shelves. I wasn’t able to see any powerbooks or ibooks nor any shuffles and mac mini’s. They seemed to have some accessories like the itrips and some skinz, but other then that nothing special. I was expecting “more” and didn’t get to see that. I am not a businessman or anything, but I personally think the store is gonna fail. It isn’t offering anything that the other retailers aren’t. If the store opened last year maybe it would have been better, but now that Apple products are being sold at Eureka and Virgin.. I don’t see how this store is gonna do any good. I have some pictures below which I quickly took from outside without the security catching me.

Mac & More 1
Mac & More 2
Mac & More 3

A bunch of people here at work are saying they heard an explosion today morning.. 5 minutes before I came in. That would mean the explosion happened around 9AM when I was in my car listening to Heart Shaped Box really loud. Anyone else heard this explosion?

PS: The sirens have been blasting for the past 10 minutes. They are test sirens… right?

Rami (Tivo Guy) got his Mac Mini yesterday. He ordered it the day they got released but since he customized his, he had to wait a lot longer to get it. He promised me he will take pictures of his Mac Mini to share with us all. As soon as he puts them up I will link to them.

I will be out of the office all day today I think. At 11AM I have an appointment with a photographer. He is supposed to shoot 46 KDD icecream buckets I need to be there when he does that. 46 buckets and 4 angles for each shot.. its gonna take forever!

Update: Here are his pictures of the Mac Mini!!