Search: “ace”

I get a lot of emails from people who want to setup their own blog under their own domain name and want to know where they can get a domain name from and hosting as well. Although I am sure I’ve posted this information before I figured I would do a quick refresh post about this.

Domain Names
I’ve tried a few domain name providers including DIrectNic and GoDaddy but my favorite is NameCheap. Their prices are decent and their admin interface is great and easy to use. Unlike GoDaddy (which I couldn’t stand) they don’t try and sell you services you don’t need every time you want to do something. www.namecheap.com

Web Hosting
My blog is currently hosted on Rackspace which you really don’t need if you’re just starting out. I originally started using Dreamhost and still use them to host some of my other sites. The biggest advantage to Dreamhost is the fact you can install WordPress (the software that runs this blog) with just a click of a button. Makes it perfect for a beginner to start blogging and they also have a free trial so you could try them out first before you sign up. I also think they give you a domain name for free when you first start or at least they used to when I joined up. www.dreamhost.com

I’ve got the following 5 Dreamhost codes that give $15 off a 1 year sign up and $100 off a 2 year sign up. These codes only work once and I only have 5 so if you try one code and it says it’s used try the second one. If all 5 don’t work it means they’ve been used up already sorry…

794847165544
910624757385
912484430318
915566572416
235249317682

Use the 12-digit code in the “promo code” field.

Please note the options above are not your only options. There are tons of domain name providers and even more hosting providers but the ones above are the ones I use and trust. If you have any questions just post it in the comments below and I will try to answer it.

Update: You can also use the code FIVEZEROOFF when checking out for a $50 discount.

One of the biggest events of the year is back with Kuwait Stock 2010. This year’s music line up includes a lot of great talent, here are the bands participating:

The Feeling
The Rebs
Revolution
The Juice
Dead Electrics
Jelly Shot

Location: British Embassy
Date: October 15th
Tickets/invitation inquiries: [email protected]
Website: www.kuwaitstock.info

Thanks Mahmood

Update: Just emailed asking about ticket prices and got the following

Thank you for your interest in KuwaitStock. The event is by invitation only. If you are known to a KuwaitStock sponsor and they invite you, they will let you know about what to do.

Please note that an invitation is not transferable.

Hope to see you soon

KuwaitStock Committee 2010

Before I started 248AM I had another blog called Miskan. Before Miskan I had a photo blog (that sadly doesn’t exist anymore) called Moblogging in Kuwait. Before Moblogging in Kuwait I started off blogging at qHate.com back when the only bloggers around were just me, Nibaq and Zaydoun from Kuwait Unplugged. Thing is I’ve posted about so much stuff in the past 7 years that I’ve completely lost track of what I’ve posted about and what I haven’t. For example it recently came into my attention that I haven’t posted about Q8Books or the original Kuwait Bookshop although I could swear I’ve posted about them before. Turns out I discovered both those places back during my Moblogging from Kuwait project in 2004 but only mentioned it briefly on Miskan and with a picture on Moblogging from Kuwait (actually called Nat my girl friend in that post back then!) yet I thought I had done a proper post about it here on 248AM. Anyway since I haven’t I figured I would do so now.

Q8 Books
Q8 Books is the only used books shop I am aware of in Kuwait. There actually aren’t that many places that sell used anything here in Kuwait which makes Q8 Books even more special. The place is filled to the brim with a ton of used books ranging from novels, kids books to cooking books and more. The owner of the place is a great guy who opened the place and runs it out of passion. They even have a website that contains all the books they have in the shop, how cool is that? The store is located on the mezzanine floor of the shopping center behind Johnny Rockets Salhiya. For store opening hours and to check out their collection of books you can visit their website www.q8books.com

The Kuwait Bookshop
Everyone knows the large Kuwait Bookshop located in the basement of Muthana Complex in Kuwait City but very few people know about their first and original store located a few hundred meters away. The original Kuwait Bookshop location was the first English bookshop to open up in Kuwait (so I was told) and the location is still open and active. Although the Muthana branch is pretty cozy the original branch is even cozier. The store is two stories with the top floor being my favorite since it feels like it contains hidden treasures. I’ve been there a few times and never seen anyone in the shop but the employees tell me they do get a lot of customers. The original Kuwait Bookshop is located near Restaurant 99 on the Sheraton Roundabout.

Note: Off topic but I think Moblogging from Kuwait was my best blog so far. Sadly it was hosted on textamerica.com which shutdown and took my blog with it. Luckily most of it is still archived on web.archive.org although 99% of the pictures aren’t. It’s still fun to flip through and read my old posts there. I used to post from my Sony Clie UX-40. To read my old posts, follow [this link] click on the first image and then keep clicking next.

According to a survey by EuroCost International, Beirut is now the most expensive city in the Middle East and 10th world wide when it comes to housing. Beirut, “the Paris of the Middle East” is ironically more expensive to live in than the real Paris. Second place is Abu Dhabi coming in at 12. Dubai this year is off the Top 20 list. [Link]

via BlogBaladi

The video above is by Kuwaiti rapper A To The G and he actually mixes in English and Arabic. Video is well shot but skip the first minute. He’s an NES and ACK graduate and you can check out his YouTube channel [Here]. Oh he’s also a boxer.

The second Kuwaiti rapper is a guy going by the name BigMo. Below is one of his songs you can listen to and you can check out the following link for more songs. [Link] Pretty good stuff.

Booty. Drugs & Liquor final by BigMo

Here is his Facebook group. [Link]

Kuwaiti rapper Moe is back with a new song called “About Me”. According to Moe he wrote this track specifically for the readers of my blog due to the responses he got from his first release. He wrote this track and finished it under a week. You can leave your feedback below. [YouTube]

Update: Here is a link to another Kuwaiti rapper called BigMo. Below is one of his songs you can listen to and you can check out the following link for more songs. [Link] Pretty good stuff.

Booty. Drugs & Liquor final by BigMo

Here is his Facebook group. [Link]

I was wondering around tonight when I stumbled across an old photography store. Some pictures in the display grabbed my attention and when I looked inside I spotted an old man sitting reading the Koran and two other interesting photos. I decided to go in and check the photos out and I ended up spending around an hour there talking to the old man.

I won’t mention the photographers name or the shop location since I want to give him his space and privacy but he’s a Lebanese guy who ran away from an abusive father and took the bus and came to Kuwait in 1959. He hasn’t left since… not even once. He worked a variety of jobs here and there and in the end became a journalist and took some really great photos, some of which many of us have come across in one point in time or another. He ended up opening up his own photography shop and it’s been there ever since. Today the shop doesn’t sell anything, he doesn’t have any customers nor even a store sign. He broke the sign ages ago because to keep it up he would have to pay a fee of KD25 a year which he didn’t want to. He sold all his negatives to a newspapers years ago for KD200 and has a few photos he kept which he was selling framed for KD25 a piece but someone bought his photo and then made copies and started selling them for KD1 so that income stopped.

While there I spotted some old cameras behind an extremely dusty display that looked like it hadn’t been open since the 80s and my God what a beautiful camera collection. He had cameras from the 70’s and early 80’s still boxed brand new! He even had the beautiful rangefinder Konica S3 from 1974 which I had purchased used off eBay for KD60 last year, except he had a brand new one all boxed up and priced at KD45! He also had two brand new Nikon F3’s from 1980, a Vivitar 35EE, a Vivitar 35EF, Mamiya 135AF and boxed up Hasselblad but I couldn’t tell what model it was. I really want to buy them all but I don’t think he wants to sell them. He’s pissed off at the whole world, he’s depressed, he’s really old and he doesn’t want to sell anything. He told me 5 months ago his residency expired and he’s now living in Kuwait illegally. He feels that he’s been forgotten and no one cares about him or remembers him. How could someone who’s been in Kuwait for 50 years non stop still require an ikameh to live here? It made me realize that if I lose my job tomorrow I would have to leave Kuwait as well except I am young and I could always move to Lebanon and start a new life or something but this old man, where would he go? He’s easily at least 80 years old, he doesn’t have any family, never married, no relatives and he hasn’t been to Lebanon in over 50 years neither does he want to go back…

I had to leave but told him I would come back again since I wanted to listen to his life story and maybe give him some recognition with my blog. I also promised him the next time I go back I would bring my laptop along since I was telling him about the Internet and he told me he had heard about it but had no idea what it was. I told him I would come back and show him since he seemed eager to know how it worked and who invented it and how it looked. I asked him what time to what time I could find him at the shop he told me 24 hours. Turns out he lives in the shop.

I am 100% sure this can’t be legal or healthy. I live in Salmiya in the old souk on Salem Mubarek Street. Right behind my building there is an empty sand lot which is used as a parking by people coming to shop in the street. The sand lot is also used as garbage dump. It has around 7 regular sized garbage cans… and one big hole in the ground.

A hole in the ground! For some reason it seems the local baladiya or whoever is responsible for garbage collection can’t afford new garbage bins or something and have decided instead to dig a big hole in the ground and fill it up with garbage. Every morning a bulldozer comes and digs up the garbage.

Why can’t they place a large garbage bin or two or three more regular sized ones instead of digging a hole?

First of all the lot is heavily surrounded by residential buildings. Second of all there is a mosque just 20 meters away from the hole. Finally people use the lot as a parking lot. Salmiya is over crowded and lacks ample parking and people are forced to park in the sandy lot filled with garbage. At night the lot is pitch black since there isn’t any kind of lighting and people end up parking right next to all the garbage bins and holes. That can’t be healthy.

Hopefully by me posting about this maybe something can be done about this. It’s just too disgusting, I mean it’s a frickin hole in the ground that’s being filled with garbage!

Posted by Fahad AlYehya | Core Fitness – Kuwait

This generation’s females are anemic, bulimic, and anorexic. They deny those things ad infinitum, of course, but you can’t really trust anything they say. They think cupcake is a food group.

Because I want to be fair and balanced, I will write this post with my “female” voice. (Yes, I do have a female voice. I keep it locked away safe and sound though. And my female voice is still a beast that will scratch your eyes out. Don’t mess with Lupita, yo!) Take it away Lupita:

75% percent of us are ova’weight, ese!
It sucks to be fat and anemic at the same time; it’s like you’re fat for nothing. Malnutrition here translates into eating junk calories devoid of any essential vitamins and minerals, replaced by traditional wholesome food.

But you told us to satisfy our cravings in moderation, homes!
I worked with women who eat nothing but chocolate, cupcakes, muffins and donuts all day long. Eating desserts and sweets all day moderately is anything but moderate. Eat your 2-3 square meals first and enjoy snacking in between them but in moderation.

Psshhh, wha’eva fatty! I have a high metabolism and I can eat wha’eva ah want.
If only I had a fils for every time I heard that, I’d be able to cross all of Lupita’s 160 cousins over the border. Studies conducted in Kuwait have shown that females between the ages of 14-18 are playing Russian Roulette with high cholesterol levels and diabetes. You don’t have high metabolisms; it’s called skinny fat. A person with a high metabolism looks like an anatomy chart. You look like a skinny stripper with extra jiggle.

Like I could care less what you tink. I’m enjoyin’ life and I’m happy! And my momma tinks I’m too SKINNY!
My mother, Allah bless her heart, is overweight and your mother’s also probably overweight. Mothers should set better examples by teaching their children on how to eat properly. Unfortunately, mothers enjoy dessert and sweet consumption more than their daughters. No one wants to be fat alone, so listen to mommy and have that extra cupcake. With whipped cream. And mango juice. And ice cream. With fondue on the side. Maybe cookies. Screw it, I’m adding in cookies.

OK OK! I get it! Save me from my own demise, papi!

I thought you’d never ask.

I passed by a nose doctor a few days ago because I wanted him to check on my nose since it’s always blocked plus I sneeze a lot. He told me I most probably had an allergy and suggested I pass by an allergy doctor to find out. I did that today and ended up getting an allergy test done.

I was expecting to get a blood test but the doctor told me she had a more effective method. Basically she took my arm and marked down around 11 letters with a pen. She then started placing drops of various liquids under the letters and then pricking my skin where the liquid drops were located. The drops represented different things I could be allergic to like dust, humidity, dust mites etc.. but just allergies that would effect my respiratory. I then had to wait for 15 minutes so she could check if any of the dots on my arm reacted, one did. Turns out I am allergic to dogs which sucked since I’ve got a dog and have had one for like 5 years now. Before that dog my family had a dog as well so I’ve always been around dogs.

Luckily it turns out there is a vaccine for my allergy which works by desensitization (picture above). For the next 3 years every morning I need to place a few drops of vaccine under my tongue. After 1 year I will be immune to dogs but I need to continue to take the vaccine for 2 more years after that. It was a pretty educational experience and a very easy process so I would recommend anyone who thinks they might be allergic to something to get the test done. For more information check the following website [Link]

Posted by Fahad AlYehya | Core Fitness – Kuwait

The first day of Ramadan was a total bust. True epic failure. You guys would’ve been disappointed at the horrors that took place at my family’s futoor table.

Yet, like the phoenix, I rise again and avail in favor of sticking to my plan like every other dedicated fitness enthusiast, which lasted a few seconds right after the kanafa, atayef and cheese cake arrived, where I yet again continued to disgrace my will and testament in keeping my mouth shut and saving dessert for later.

Of course a few cups of sage, thyme, ginger, white tea, gymnema sylvestre and peppermint post pig-out should minimize the gut-damage, at least in accordance to my mother.  On a side note, I’ll be discussing more about those 6 herbs and how they can benefit you when indulging in belt-widening carby and fatty mixtures from hell.

This Post’s About Dessert BTW

I guide you how to eat dessert responsibly, I throw in a few jokes, then you follow my advice by eating dessert responsibly and we all live happily every after. The usual Q&A is available for any necessary inquiries in regards to the subject or any other relevant areas in fitness, health and nutrition.

Snacking Rules:

*Dessert should never go above 300 calories.

*Each snack should contain all macro nutrients, including junk-nutrients such as sugar and fat. Inclusion of all macros balance out the snack, providing a more subtle release of blood sugar.

*This is bullet point #3 and isn’t remotely relevant to the subject at hand.

*Snacks are to be consumed 2.5-3 hours after a meal or before a meal.

There is a guy in Kuwait called Sa’ad who seems to be a pizza fanatic. He recently submitted his pizza ingredients to Serious Eats and ended up getting featured there which is pretty cool. You can check out the post and pictures by clicking this [Link]

via Slider Station

Last month I posted about the indoor RC track that just recently got set up by the Kuwait Science Club and today I finally got to pass by and check it out. When I got there I met up with Nawaf from the Science Club who was setting up his car. He took me through the whole set up process step by step explaining how everything works. These tiny radio controlled cars work pretty much like our large cars with similar features. They even have tires with different softness and hardness like proper race cars.

Once we were done setting up the car he let me take it around the track. Some of the drivers there were averaging around 10 seconds a lap and I think I managed to break their record for the slowest lap ever. Once I get back from my vacation next week I’ll be taking my own car to the track at least once or twice a week since it’s like the perfect summer activity due to the fact the indoor track is air conditioned.

Now the exciting part is that this year I will be participating in their outdoor buggy practices and races which are held from October to March at their super large outdoor track next to 360 Mall. They will be teaching me everything there is to know from building a car to setting it up to racing it. I will be driving the Xray 808 which is the car I had my eye on last year (pictured above) so it should turn out to be a lot of fun.

For information on the Radio Control Car Club of Kuwait click [Here]

Update: If you’re interested in getting into this hobby you can call or SMS Nawaf on 99625805

So today I wore my Shake Shack t-shirt to the gym and on my way I took a picture and posted it on my twitter. To my surprise, one of my followers on twitter replied back telling me that Shake Shack will be opening in place of Le Pain Quotidien at Avenues. I quickly SMS’d my Alshaya insider to confirm and it turned out to be true.

Of course I was upset since I’ve been promoting Shake Shack ever since I first found out they were opening in Kuwait and instead of getting the information first from my insider, I ended up getting it from a twitter follower. My insider did tell me though that they were planning to have the branch open by end of the year and that I would get more information regarding that next week.

I also found out two more things, one is that they’re planning to open a second branch of P.F. Chang’s next to Al Corniche Club. My guess is they will probably open up where I Love Souk used to be located. Finally, I also found out that Pinkberry will be opening their Marina Mall branch before Eid next month. That’s everything I got for now.

A couple of weeks back one of the power plugs at home melted and started smoking. Luckily Nat was in the house at the time and smelled something burning and managed to turn off the plug before anything serious happened. A few days after that there was the fire incident that happened in my office building. Because of these two events I decided I should be “fire ready”.

I have a small fire cabinet in my apartment. I didn’t put it there, it came with the flat and it had 3 empty fire extinguishers inside which I never replaced or even threw out (they looked nice in the cabinet). I decided it was time I got them filled so I took the 3 empty canisters and headed to Rihab Complex in Hawalli. I had seen some fire supply stores on the first floor behind the video game stores and figured they would refill my canisters. Well, turns out although they do refill empty fire extinguisher bottles they wouldn’t refill mine since they were around 25 years old and so weren’t compatible with their machines.

So, I decided to get some new bottles. I figured they were going to cost me an arm and a leg but was completely surprised by how cheap the fire extinguishers turned out to be. There are two main types of extinguishers I found, powder and CO2 based ones. Both put out the same kind of fires but according to the salesman the powder one is cheaper but messier while the CO2 extinguishers cost more but don’t leave a mess. I ended up picking up two small 1KG powder fire extinguishers and one larger 2KG CO2 extinguisher from the shop pictured above. There are around 6 to 8 fire supply shops next to each other which means you can haggle on the price. The 1KG powder extinguishers cost KD2.5 each while the 2KG CO2 extinguisher costs KD8 (4KG powder costs KD8 as well), I picked three of them up for KD11.

So now you know where you can pick up fire extinguishers from and how much they cost so there really isn’t an excuse why you shouldn’t also be fire ready. I put one of the small extinguishers in Nat’s car since she didn’t have one (my car came with one) and I am now going to pick up a few more extinguishers this weekend for my parents home. Its better to be safe than sorry.