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Two days ago the most beautiful goat in the world contest was held in Saudi Arabia. The goat pictured above won first place in what has to be the strangest beauty contest I’ve ever heard of. If you follow the link you can see more pictures from this event, doesn’t anyone else think these are some of the weirdest looking goats? [Link]

I am not a big fan of diet drinks but I have them every now and then to help ease the guilt, like when I am having the 2,400 calorie spaghetti and meatballs at Macaroni Grill, I feel more comfortable eating it when I am drinking a diet coke. The problem with Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi is that they taste like crap. I tried Pepsi Max when that came out and I also really hated it since it tasted worse than the diet versions. A week ago though I decided to try Coca Cola Zero since it looked cool and now its the only Coke I’ve been drinking. I don’t know what the advantages are, I don’t know how many callories it has or whatever, I just know it has no sugar and that has to be better than the regular coke. Now best part is that it tastes like the regular coke if not better. They might as well have replaced the regular coke with zero and I doubt anyone would have noticed.

Awhile back I wanted to sell my car and decided I would do a little experiment by listing my car on Q8car and also on Q8showroom and see which site ends up getting me a buyer. Well I just sold my car today but I didn’t get to try my Q8car vs Q8showroom experiment.

Thursday my car went up on Q8car and by Friday I had two people call me and pass by to check it out. By Saturday I got two more people call and one more person passed by. Sunday I got a call and the guy told me to meet up with him at Al Reemal Al Dahabi in Shuwaikh which is this huge ass place that checks cars. I think all the tests took around two hours and in the end the potential buyer got a printout with all the positives and negatives in the car. After that it was a done deal and we shook on it.

So as you can see I didn’t even have time to list my car on Q8showroom. Even today while doing the car paperwork with the guy I had a guy call me asking me about the car. Before I placed the car on their website I had read somewhere that if the car isn’t anything too weird it usually sells within three days and I guess thats true.

I paid KD10 to list my car on Q8car and that includes four pictures and the duration is “until its sold”. For KD5 you can list the car for one month and you get to post just one picture.

I’ve been using my Eee heavily for 5 days now and I figured I would post a second impression. As I mentioned in my previous post, the Eee is tiny and thats why I am loving it so much. Its very light weighing around 900grams which makes it very easy to lug around and pick up with just one hand. I really can’t wait till my next business trip so I could carry this with me.

The Eee version I got was the Linux version which comes with a 20GB hard drive. The system OS is very easy to use because Asus have a very simple and basic interface setup by default. When you first turn on the computer it takes less than 30 seconds, maybe around 20 to boot up. You are then greeted with a colorful and simple icon based interface with tabs on top. If you want Internet apps you click on Internet, if you want work apps you click on work, very easy. Since I wanted a bit more control I installed the advanced interface which is similar to most Linux and Windows based systems.

Here are some quick tidbits: I’ve gotten used to the keyboard but the problem is I can’t type properly on other keyboards now! The battery life is around 4 hours with normal use while the speaker volume is surprisingly louder than my Macbook which is cool and the screen is really sharp and very viewable from a lot of angles. Its also as bright as any other laptop screen. Overall I can’t find much to complain about. Although its a 900mhz celeron the Eee is very snappy with most programs launching nearly instantly.

My only issue with the Eee I guess is that when its running on batteries the CPU speed drops to 630mhz to save power and I haven’t found a way to turn this off. Other than that I have no regrets whatsoever with this Eee, I would definitely recommend it.

Update: Just an FYI, I haven’t seen the Eee 900 in Kuwait. All the ones I’ve seen here are the 7inch screen version, this one is 8.9inch. I ordered mine from Amazon for around KD140 and paid around KD8 for shipping to Kuwait with USWS. It didn’t get held in customs, probably cuz the box is really small. Here are links to the Eee 900 on Amazon:
Asus Eee 900 with Windows [Link]
Asus Eee 900 with Linux [Link]

My Wrangler’s battery died today while trying to leave the Avenues. Its not the first time this has happened, the first time was two years ago when I was trying to leave Souk Sharq. That same day I posted about it on my blog on how Jeep’s Road Assist was amazing, that was on June 4, 2006. Thats nearly exactly two years later (off by just two days) except this time Jeep’s Road Assist wasn’t there to save me. The Road Assist number wouldn’t connect me to anyone, I would call and it would ring twice then I would get a beep and the line would die. I tried over and over and it wouldn’t work.

I didn’t even have jumper cables so I just walked back into Avenues and headed to Carrefour and bought some cheap ass cables for like KD1.300 (they sucked, need to get a better pair). When I got back to the car I asked the parking security if they had a plan for a situation like this, I figured they might have a tow truck number or maybe an emergency jump starter kit but turned out they didn’t have anything of that sort. Instead the security guard was kind enough to help me find a car that was willing to help me jump start my Jeep.

After jump starting the car it turned out if I removed my foot from the gas pedal the car would die on me instantly so after restarting the car again I had to drive with two feet, one on the brakes and the other constantly holding down the throttle. Luckily I didn’t have to drive too far, I was planning on taking my Jeep to service it at the dealer tomorrow so I just drove the car to the garage which was just 5 minutes away. Once I parked the Jeep outside and removed my foot of the gas pedal the car died again, perfect timing. I found a cab passing by and just took it back home. Tomorrow will pass by the dealer and have them replaced my battery. I am kinda glad I purchased the extended warranty back then. What I now regret is not actually going ahead and purchasing the Emergency Jumper Starter which I posted about in March!

Read at Work is a website full of stories ranging from short ones to classic which you can read while at work. Now the cool part is that the interface of the site is designed to look like you are working so when you enter the site it launches in full screen and resembles Windows XP. Then when you find a story you like it will open up in what looks like a powerpoint presentation. That way you could read your story while pretending you are flipping through a presentation. Its brilliant! [Link]

One thing I haven’t mentioned yet about Munich is the weather. It’s FREEZING, the temperature during the day is like 9 degrees and ever since I came its been raining a lot. Thats why when I passed by Puma in the evening and found their official Volvo Ocean Race gear I had to get a jacket. Pictured above is the official PUMA Race Team jacket which has a Gortex shell, a high collar and a packable hood. I wore it on the way back home in the rain and it was just fantastic.

I also managed to find Adidas Jeans by Diesel. Diesel and Adidas teamed up for this new line of jeans and the Adidas Originals store next to my hotel had some in stock. I ended up getting the pair pictured above. I am having a hard time shopping in Munich since everything closes early (8PM). By the time I finish with work and decide to do some shopping I don’t have time. Even supermarkets close at 8!

A reader of the blog sent an email to inform me that Dean & Deluca will be opening in Kuwait before the end of the year. According to the reader the upscale gourmet food grocery store will be brought to Kuwait by Alshaya and that they are working overtime to try and have the place opened by Q4 of this year. I don’t know the accuracy of this information but if its true it would be something to look forward to. Alshaya launched the Dean & Deluca Cafe in Dubai early this year but they haven’t opened their store yet.

Thanks SJM MUKI

Its such a beautiful place, I was soooo not expecting Munich to be like this. The streets, the weather, the people, the buildings everything I’ve been experiencing in Munich has just been perfect. I am staying at a hotel called H’Otello, its a small boutique hotel but one thats super affordable and seriously excellent value for money. Its the trendiest hotel I’ve stayed in and I love my room, again because of the minimilism.

I found this place in the local market that has like a million kinds of olives. I love olives so I will probably have to try as much of them as I can. Internet is free at the hotel so I will be posting from here but probably late in the evening and early in the morning since I will be trying my best NOT to spend my trip here in the hotel.

Just got to the Munich Airport and so far I think its the nicest airport I have ever been to design wise. It’s very minamilistic, no clutter and a lot of empty space. (Posted from my Nokia E61i)

Yesterday I posted about the HP 2133 and just awhile ago my partner at work brought his friends HP 2133 into the office. First impressions, its a lot bigger and heavier than I expected. The Asus Eee feels tiny and very light compared to the HP. Windows XP was installed on the HP which was running pretty smoothly. I wasn’t able to test out videos but XP booted up at a decent speed and all the applications seem to open instantaneously. The system I had was the 1.6ghz with 1.75GB of RAM, this version I think costs like $800 which isn’t cheap.

The screen is really great and the keyboard felt like a regular laptop keyboard, big keys and all spaced out nicely. But, the size and weight of this thing has really pushed me towards the Asus Eee 900.

Update: I forgot to mention, the trackpad with the trackpad buttons are the worst I have ever used.

I signed up for the Cinemizer newsletter early in the year and I just got an email from them now telling me that the Cinemizer is now on sale in Germany.

The Cinemizer for those of you who don’t know is a wearable video display. According to Carl Zeiss the creators, watching movies on the Cinemizer is like sitting in front of a 46″ TV from 6 feet away. What interested me the most in the Cinemizer is the fact that it works with my iPod Video which would make it perfect for watching movies and TV shows while on the plane. Also, if I am lucky I could be mistaken for a blind person and get special treatment from the stewardess since the glasses wouldn’t look out of place on Ray Charles.

Since I am going to be in Germany next week I am going to try and see if I could test the device out before I purchase it. For more info on the Cinemizer click [Here]

Just found this cool site while researching on what kind of seats will be on my next flight. The site has pictures and reviews by people on various seats and classes on different airlines. The site also has reviews and pictures of different airports, lounges and even airline meals! Its pretty helpful and its little things like this that makes the Internet such a wonderful place. [Link]

I’ve had a ton of people ask me what I thought of Syria so I figured I would dedicate a post to it. I had heard sooo much negative stuff about Syria that I arrived expecting the worst but it wasn’t that bad. Border security didn’t give me any issues even though I had a Canadian passport. No one asked for a bribe or even hinted to wanting something. The road from the borders to Damascus was gorgeous and reminded me of the drive from LA to Vegas. Damascus is and looks really old and everyone seems very poor but one things for sure, they sure know how to make the most amazing kebabs. The first night I had dinner at a restaurant called Abu Kamal and they had the best kebab’s I ever tried. The restaurant had been around for over 60 years so I figured they had time to get the formula right but next day for lunch I stopped by this random kebab place on the street and again I had the best kebab I’ve ever had! How the hell is it so easy for them to get kebab so perfect?? I could probably walk into a bakala and ask for kebab and it would be the best kebab in the world. The prices are also sooo cheap!

The hotel I stayed in was called Semiramis Hotel. The website says its 5 stars but I don’t know how thats possible. The hotel was decent, I am guessing for Syrian standards its like superb but it really was just standard. The room was big and the location of the hotel was right in the city, walking distance from a lot of things. I had some free time the next morning and headed to the famous Syrian souk (forgot the name) which was ok I guess, not my style.

The airport was the biggest disappointment. Its old, small, unorganized, dirty and boring. But my Damascus stay wasn’t bad, I wouldn’t go there on a vacation but I didn’t mind passing through.

Varouj is an incredible Armenian restaurant located in a tight backstreet of Bourj Hammoud in Lebanon. The place is tiny on the inside with only 4 tables and the restaurant is run by a father and son, the son cooks while the father takes care of the guests. Anyone who’s watched the Seinfeld episode with the soup Nazi will feel right at home in Varouj because the father is Lebanon’s version of the soup Nazi.

What makes Varouj unique other than the really good food is the character of the father. We were five people having lunch and we were ordering the cold appetizers when the father decided we had enough appetizers and walked away. He wouldn’t let us order any more. Then when he felt it was time he came to us and asked us what hot dishes we wanted and while we were ordering he again told us that he thought we had enough and walked off. We wanted frogs for example but he refused telling us we already had enough dishes. Then later he even decided to cancel one of our other dishes. So we ordered frogs again and again but he kept telling us we didn’t need it. The table behind us called the father and told him they wanted some soujouk and makanek (kinds of sausages) and he told them not now later. Its crazy. He also wouldn’t remove a dish from the table unless it was wiped clean.

The food was delicious, we ordered: hommos, moutabal, fattoush, loubyeh, batata harra, labneh, tongue, spleen, kibeh neyeh, sheep balls, little birds, chicken liver, chicken wings, basterma, soujouk and makanek. All the dishes were the best I have ever tasted.

The way everything is priced is also interesting. Basically nothing is priced and there is no menu. You go in, you order what you want and in the end he will tell you how much you need to pay and you don’t even get a receipt. Our bill came out exactly 100$ but according to my friend if we had ordered less or more the bill would have still come out the same. If you are planning a trip to Lebanon this is a place you need to try if you want a taste of local cuisine. The best way to find the place is to ask a taxi driver in Bourj Hammoud to take you or give the father a call on 03-882933