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Spotify is my favorite digital music service and whenever I post about it on the blog people always ask me how I manage to get it working. Geek in Kuwait has put together easy step by step instructions to follow to get Spotify and Netflix working in Kuwait. So if you’re interested in getting those two services working, follow this [Link]

Note: I use StrongVPN to bypass blocked websites. Also with Spotify unlike Pandora, once you sign up you no longer need to use a VPN to use it.

The event section on the blog has gotten a makeover. I’m trying to make it much easier to find out about events and the section is still a work in progress. I’m planning to add the ability to find events by category as well as adding a full month view.

There are a lot of events taking place all the time so I’m posting all of the ones I find in the events section and only posting the ones I think are interesting here on the main blog page. So let me know your feedback, check it out [Here]

Note: I took the photo above at the Fired but Unexploded exhibit

Starting today, the blogs forum is now called “Community”. With this name change comes a host of other changes all with the aim to make the community more user friendly as well as more pleasing to the eye.

You can access the community by clicking the link in the navigation strip up on top or by typing community.mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com in your browser.

There are still more changes and additions coming to the blog which I’ll be rolling out one by one in the coming weeks.

So I kinda messed something up today and had to restore my blog from yesterdays backup. For those of you who left comments today and yesterday (particularly under the Cannoli post) you’ll notice they’re no longer there because of this fact. Sorry about that.

I passed by Sony today and picked up a Sony PS4 to review for the blog along with two games, Killzone and Knack. My brother is going to be reviewing it since he’s in charge of the gaming posts on my blog. If you need to know anything about the PS4 just leave a comment below.

If you’ve got a mountain bike then this is for you. This Saturday a casual mountain bike race is going to take place as Mutla Ridge. The invitation is open to everyone and it is not sponsored, there is no entry fee and there is no prize money to be won. The distance that will be covered is around 20KM and it will take about two hours to complete. According to the person organizing it, other than the tough, short 600m climb right at the beginning the rest of the route is fairly easy. Here are some details:

Date: Saturday, December 14th 2013
Time: Be there 7:30AM, race starts at 8AM
Location: Mutla Ridge [Map]
Distance: 20KM
Duration: Approx. 2 hours

For a lot more details including directions from Salmiya and Fahaheel as well as information on the route itself check out the following [Link]

See you guys there!

I’m looking for a CSS expert to help me out on a project for the blog. If you think you’re good hit me up with an [Email]

Update: Thank you to everyone who emailed me, I’ll reply back as soon as I can.

The 248AM iPhone app is finally updated and available in the Apple Store to download. There are two main fixes, the first is the fact the app now works with iOS7. The second fix is that the app now runs in full screen. I also submitted the updated Kuwait Blogs app into the store and that should be come available to download in the next few days.

To download the app just search for 248am in the Apple Store or click [Here]

Found this interesting article on Reddit about a female mechanic in Kuwait. A female mechanic is a rare sight anywhere in the world so you can imagine how difficult it must be being a female mechanic in Kuwait.

Being a Female Car enthusiast is tough, especially since it’s a male dominant field. But you know when it becomes even more tougher? Being a Female Car Enthusiast, in Kuwait.

In Kuwait, “mechanic” and “girl” are not mutually exclusive states of existence. In fact, the number of girls I personally know who are interested in cars and mechanics, is next to zero. It’s not to say that they don’t exist, because they do, and some of them are getting up there. Girl Street Racers, Drifters, Dragsters, Motorcyclists., and a couple of others who also work in this line of work/own autoshops. However, they are, we are, the minority. Being a female in Kuwait is hard enough. But being a Car Enthusiast and a female. Is even more harder.

Check out the full post on her blog Autoholics 965 [Here]

This is my last post on Abu Dhabi but I actually posted it on Blog Baladi since it’s related to Lebanon as well. Those of you who visit Lebanon in the summer and party at Skybar probably know that they close down in the winter because of the weather. Well Skybar are now launching O1NE in Beirut next month and it’s basically Skybar but indoors.

While I was in Abu Dhabi last weekend I found out they had opened up there so I ended up passing by to check it out. What I really wanted to see was the interior since a friend of mine who works for Skybar had previously told me they designed the interior with the concept to project visuals across the full 360 degrees of the interior. The outcome looks pretty great and if you’re curious to see how O1NE in Beirut will end up looking like check out my post [Here]

British bank HSBC looked at economic opportunities and quality of life for expats in 34 countries and no surprise, Kuwait didn’t do so well. But what I’m finding difficult to grasp is how did Saudi Arabia come ahead? On the bright side, even though we came behind Saudi Arabia we did come ahead of the UK.

Here is an article on this study [Link]
Here is the link to the HSBC study [Link]

Thanks John

Local blogger Frankom shot the picture above this morning on his way to work. Not sure what kind of school would lack basic child safety regulations… [Link]

When I travel I don’t usually take my DSLR but instead either take my compact Panasonic GX1 or no camera at all and just use my iPhone which honestly is more than enough 95% of the time. But, since I was going to be in Europe over Eid for 20 days I figured I might as well take my Nikon D800 and make good use of it while I was there. Problem is I have 3 lenses, a 24mm, 50mm and a 80-200mm. I didn’t have one lens that was versatile enough to carry around. Since I had a great experience with the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 previously, I decided to email my contact at AAB World (the Sigma dealers) and see what other full frame lenses they had which I could borrow and review for the blog and I was given the following options:

Sigma Lens 50MM F1.4
Sigma Lens 70-200MM F2.8
Sigma Lens 70MM 2.8 MACRO
Sigma Lens 85MM F1.4
Sigma Lens 8MM F3.5
Sigma Lens 12-24MM F4.5-5.6 MACRO
Sigma Lens 24-70MM 2.8

I decided to go with the 24-70mm since it was basically a combination of my 24mm and 50mm lens in addition to going further up to 70mm. It was also a bright lens at f/2.8 which meant I’d be able to use it in low light situations or blur out the background in portrait shots.

When I picked up the lens my biggest worry was that it would be large in size. The reason I am a fan of my 24mm and 50mm lenses is because they’re really compact and light which helps keep the weight down and also allows me to shove my camera into any one of my small messenger bags. A big lens would mean I needed to carry a larger bag which I didn’t want to. Luckily the Sigma 24-70mm turned out to be compact albeit a bit heavy since it’s a very solid lens with a full metal body and large glass. I really used to not like Sigma lenses since I always associated them with being poor build and of low quality but this is the second time I take out one of their new lenses and I’m really falling in love with them.

Using the lens was very practical and the zoom range with the fixed f/2.8 aperture didn’t make me miss my lighter prime lenses. The lens was fast to focus and near silent when doing so and I was able to use it for landscape shots as well as portrait ones because of the zoom range. My only wish because I’m greedy like that is if it was able to zoom even more like up to 120mm. But of course I want that while keeping the lens the same size and still keep the f/2.8 aperture which wouldn’t be possible.

The lens is available for both Canon and Nikon and AAB World are selling it for KD265 which is around KD30 higher than Amazon. For the size and the lens aperture You can check out their website for store locations [Here].

[YouTube]

Last night at the local MMA event GFC 4 a huge fight broke out. The fight started after supporters of a GFC fighter stormed the cage after he got knocked out. The fight initiated in various small cells around the arena but then turned into one large street brawl. According to previous UFC fighter Ray Elbe who was at the arena last night, he’s never seen anything like this ever before and he’s been involved with MMA for over a decade now. You can check out Rays post on this event on his blog [Here]

[YouTube]

Update: Here is another video from a better angle

[YouTube]

The Instagram blog and official account featured the account of Sheikh Majed Al-Sabah a few days ago. Sheikh Majed Al-Sabah who was the person behind Villa Moda has been taking photos of household objects on stark white backgrounds which has proven to be popular with his followers.

I’m not aware of any other Kuwaiti account that has been featured on Instagram before. The photo they featured has already received over 300,000 likes while the article on the blog has received over 1,000 notes. You can check out his account by following him on @majedalsabahkuwait and you can also check out the feature on him [Here]

Thanks @geekinkuwait