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The other morning I was looking for my PSP which was on the charger and I couldn’t find it so I figured Nataly might have taken it to work or something. Then while I was about to leave for work I found my PSP with Geo my dog! It seems he found my PSP tucked into its soft cushion case on the table and mistook it for one of his toys and took it down to his play area where he was busy chewing the case. Luckily the PSP was fine and after wiping Geo’s drool from the case it was also unharmed.

Today morning I had my ipod sitting on my foof pod on my Mac which sits on the floor and I was busy copying songs onto it when all of a sudden I hear a bang and Geo running off. Turns out he was playing with my iPod and it fell onto the floor. No harm done and I continue to copy songs. Finally I was about leave and I took my ipod and I was looking for my foof case and I couldn’t find it. At first I again figured Nat took it because she sometimes uses it for her digital camera but I noticed her camera was still on the table. Then it hit me, it was with Geo, thats why he ran away! So I went downstairs and I was right, Geo was sitting there chewing my foof pod.

Its hard to get angry at Geo because he can be really cute. In the mornings for example he usually wakes me up before my alarm by climbing onto my bed and licking my face so that I could take him down for his morning walk. Its cute but if the last time I took him down at night was 10PM that means he comes and wakes me up at 6:30AM which isn’t cute anymore. It seems he can only hold his bladder for around 8 hours so if I am too lazy to take him down right before I sleep at 12 I usually pay for it by having him wake me up super early in the morning.

Yesterday night I finally realized how much he had grown. When you live with the dog 24 hours a day its hard to notice how much he has developed but yesterday I finally noticed. I was playing with him in his play area when I noticed this small hole in one of the large boxes he has. I had cut out that hole back when I first got Geo so he could pass through it while playing but looking at the hole now I can’t imagine how he fit in it. He can barely fit his head in it now and that made me realize that Geo really has grown since we got him back in February and I can’t wait till he grows even more..

Two days ago I watched the movie Waiting… which stars a few of my favorite actors including Ryan Reynolds (Two Guys and a Girl), Anna Faris (Scary Movie) and Luis Guzmán (Pachanga in Carlito’s Way). The movie talks about a group of friends working at a restaurant who are all bored and want something better in their lives, may it be a girl, a promotion or a better career. Its one of those movies thats very entertaining to watch but just doesn’t really have a beginning or an end. It reminded me a lot of the movie Empire Records except those guys were working at a music store and these guys at a restaurant.

This movie in a way is also educational, you learn for example never to piss off your waiter. Seriously, once you see this movie you might never eat at a restaurant again so be warned. Its a funny movie with a lot of silly moments but with a pace that is calm and peaceful like The Station Agent. It was fun to watch and thats why I am giving it a 4 out of 5.

Kuwaits rank increased this year from 141st to 134th place. Zurich scored the highest for quality of living while Baghdad ranked the lowest. Lebanon is in 155th place, Saudi Arabia 162, Dubai 85, and Bahrain 125. For the full list and more details click the [Link]

OK, with all this cookie talk I have decided to do a cookie showdown where I will get cookies from a bunch of places and then try them all to see which is the best cookie. That way we can get this cookie business over with and move on to another addiction. These are the places I know of that have cookies, if you know of any more leave a comment below.

Fuddruckers
Choowy Goowy
KFC
Hardees
Starbucks
Subway
Costa
Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf
Breadz
McDonalds McCafe

My favorite sushi place in Kuwait is Kei but honestly I hadn’t tried sushi anywhere else here until yesterday night. Once you get used to a sushi place its difficult to eat sushi somewhere else because the dishes differ and your favorites in one place might be a completely different experience in another. Thats mainly the reason I have been hesitant to try any other place. Another advantage of eating at the same sushi place all the time is the fact that you make friends with the people who work there and if you are like me and only sit at the bar then you get to make friends with the most important person at the sushi place.. the sushi chef or “my bartender” as I like to call him. Our bartender is always creating new and exciting dishes for us to try including my favorites so far a sushi pizza and most recently maki desert which involves banana, mango, crab and some other ingredients wrapped in rice and seaweed. Yesterday night though I was invited to Maki and I wasn’t expecting it to be any good since Nat had been there before and given it a rating of 1.5 out of 5. My own experience last night was on the other hand a very good one.

Maki is a very trendy looking place that feels like a pub minus the beer taps and whisky bottles. From the minute you walk in you forget you are in Kuwait, which is a good thing when you want to get away from things. The interior is very cozy and the tables are closely packed together, not as close as Al-Boom but still very close. We sat next to the door, which is probably the best location since you could see the people coming in. Our host was a regular at Maki and he ordered a very large assortment of appetizers for us. My favorites were the Negimayaki, which consists of sliced beef rolled with spring onions surrounded by teriyaki sauce. I think it looked very appetizing and interesting, kinda like tiny potted plants.. My other favorite was the deep friend chicken with plum sauce. For main course our host also ordered a wide range of dishes including a maki dish that was named after him called the Issa. My favorite dishes from the main course were the Fusion, the Fusion 2, Issa and Ghandour. They were all REALLY incredible dishes. The Fusion’s were sushi wraps, but the wrapping paper is their own creation and tasted really good. The Issa and Ghandour were maki dishes and they were really superb, maybe the best maki dishes I have ever had.

The service was good and very friendly. The owner of Maki is Lebanese and the manager and main waiters are also all Lebanese which is similar to how Casper&Gambini and Waterlemon are. The problem I had with the place is that near the end of our evening they started playing Arabic music really loud which I didn’t find cool at all. If it was a pub I would have finished my drink and walked out and down to the next pub, but in reality its a Sushi place and there is no pub anywhere near.

The pricing is decent and compared to Kei, Maki is more expensive but just by a tiny bit. You can check out their prices yourself and compare it to your favorite place by downloading the menu from their website. I also noticed that Maki isn’t what I would call an authentic Japanese experience. They do have your regular maki’s and sushi’s but the regular dish I tried which was the Crazy Maki tasted normal and bland. Its their special dishes with their secret sauces and ingredients that are exceptional but they are what I call modern sushi.

Maki is located in Salmiya behind Diva’s. Its easy to find and if you want to pass by make sure you reserve since I went there on a Sunday night and the place was fully packed. At the end of the month they are opening a new location in Marina World in that thing I don’t know what you call it.. you know when you stand outside at Marina Crescent and you look right you see that large structure with colorful lights? Its the thing located between Marina Crescent and Hard Rock Cafe. Anyway they were opening there which should be cool.

I really enjoyed Maki and I would definitely start going there but I also won’t be ditching Kei anytime soon. Both places offer completely different experiences and dishes and I would rather have both then to choose either one of them. I am going to give Maki a 4.5 out of 5. It lost points on the Arabic music. You can check out more pictures and details on Maki by visiting their website olivermaki.com. Next week I will try Edo since they tell me its really good and will post a review once I do.

Sigh, another logo crosses over to the 3D button style. Just barely over a month ago I posted about Quarks new logo which looks like a button and now Vodafone went ahead and did the same thing. The new redesign looks OK even though I don’t like the 3D effect in general. I also prefer the new typeface since I used to think having the logo in place of the O’s was a bit too repetetive in the old logo so thats cool. In general though, they don’t make logos like they used to.

Taking pictures of our dog Geo is a difficult task. Other then the fact that he moves too much but also the fact that his body is a light color while his face is a dark black. Most of my pictures underexpose his face while keeping his body color intact or over exposing his body while bringing out the details of his face. So I was surprised to see that iDip managed to get a very nice shot of Geo with a perfectly lit face and natural colored body. Check it out. [Link]

Yesterday I went to the first dog show ever held in Kuwait which was organized by PAWS. The event took place in the British Embassy gardens from 2 to 6PM and it was open to everyone even if you didn’t have a dog just as long as you signed up ahead of time and paid the KD2 entrance fee. The weather was perfect a lot of sun and a little cold breeze.

The British embassy is really nice and their garden is huge. There were a lot of stands selling stuff from used books and dvds to sandwiches and and soft drinks. It was Geo’s first time out to a public place since the me stepping on his leg incident over a month ago so he was very excited to be out surrounded by other dogs and children. I have to say Geo must have been the most playful and friendliest dog there. Their were other friendly dogs at the event but all of them at one point or another got upset by another dog or person and tried to attack/bite or bark back. Geo on the other hand never got upset with anyone.. even the dogs who tried to bite him.

There were easily around 40 to 50 dogs at the event yesterday if not more. You had a lot of good-looking dogs like my favorite which was a Sheepdog and you also had some previously rescued dogs that were mostly mutts. Speaking of rescued dogs, there were a couple of puppies during the event that were wearing “Adopt Me” bandanas, they were puppies and dogs that didn’t have homes and could be adopted by anyone interested in them. Geo had a lot of fun playing with two of them, actually as usual, Geo runs and jumps up and down by himself thinking he is playing with the dogs but they actually just sit there and watch him.

The events were fun to watch, Geo of course as I mentioned yesterday came in second place in the Best Puppy category, the puppy that came first was a German Shepherd and Husky mix and looked really cute. Maybe if Geo was 2 months younger he would have had a better chance at getting first place but yesterday he looked oversized compared to the other puppies. I didn’t get a decent picture of the puppy that came in first but I was checking the PAWS website and I found the puppies picture there, his name is Bear and he in the one on the right [Picture].

The US ARMY K9 unit was there and performed a fun show for everyone. I will talk about that in more detail once I post the video of their show maybe later on today or tomorrow. Anyway overall it was a really fun event and I would for sure participate again next year. I got to meet two Kuwait bloggers at the event, Stallion and iDip, they turned out to be a lot different then I expected them to be.. in a good way of course. I also met 3 readers of the blog, which is always a nice experience. I had a lot of fun and it was really exhausting for everyone but definitely a lot of fun. Check out the pictures from the event. [Pictures]

If you are interested in adopting a dog then check out the PAWS website, they have pictures and information on all the dogs they have available. [Link]

This is something I wanted to post about ages ago and I actually thought I had but seems I never did. Most of you by now have probably seen the new rebranded Baskin Robbins at the Marina Mall food court. I really dislike their new logo, I don’t like the new colors and I don’t like the new typeface. Maybe they are trying to target young children and thats why they rebranded but as an adult I prefer the older cleaner looking logo. I actually think the new logo reminds me of Halloween for some reason..

I am extremely exhausted and both Nat and Geo are currently asleep. They went to sleep like 2 hours ago while I stayed up playing on my PSP. I won’t be able to upload the pictures today since I am going to fall asleep on the keyboard any second now. Anyway I will leave you with one picture tonight, its of Geo accepting his second place ribbon.

Just got back home from the Dog Show event that was held at the British Embassy. We were there from 2PM and it was a lot of fun. Geo won second place in the Best Puppy competition which was really great. I took a lot of pictures and some video which I will probably post later today with a more detailed account on everything that happened. At the moment I am starving since I didn’t have any lunch yet so I am just gonna freshen up and then go have Chinese food.

what is typogenerator?
typoGenerator is a random generator for ‘typoPosters’. a typoPoster is a poster, created from images and letters/text that doesnt have any sense, just to look good

how does typogenerator work?
the user types some text; typoGenerator searches images.google for the text and creates a background from the found images, using randomly chosen effects. then it places the text, using random effects too.

[Link]

For the next three months Alghanim Automotive will be the main sponsors for the website. As you can see they have purchased the banner space on the top of the sidebar and they might be swapping their ads every 2 weeks or whenever they have a new offer.

Alghanim Automative are the dealers for Cadillac, Chevrolet, Hummer, Opel and Saab and around every two weeks I will be invited to try out a certain car. That should turn out to be really fun since I haven’t done anything like that before. Most importantly they will not be interfering in the reviews which is also a cool thing.

This support by Alghanim Automotive is a good thing for the site because the money from this deal will be reinvested into the website. I met the Alghanim marketing team last week and they are a nice young group who are great fans of the blog so I am glad to be working with them.

The next few months will be very interesting and filled with surprises so enjoy the ride.

Simply Stinni found another link for an online maid shopping site. This place has an even larger collection of maids and allows you to search by age, sex, nationality, religion etc.. kinda like those match making sites… [Link]

Late last month I placed an order for the IPEVO free.1 Skpe Phone and I just received it yesterday. I have to say its just the coolest accessory for my Mac, even cooler then my CueCat!

I ordered the white version while my sister ordered the black one and they are honestly both great looking. I prefer the white since all my furniture in my computer room is white plus white is more Apple like. The phone works really great with the Mac, all you need to do is install this application which runs in the background and whenever you want to use Skype you just pick up the phone and click on the Skype button which will then launch the Skype application. You can then use the up and down controller on the phone to move up and down in your Skypes contact list, once you highlight a contact you just click the call button and you are suddenly calling your contact all without even touching your computer. Say you want to dial a number that isn’t on the contact list then you just input the numbers on the phone and press the call button. Very very easy to use just like a regular phone. The build quality of the phone is just superb and combined with its looks its hard to believe it costs only $30.

I couldn’t wait to try the phone so I quickly called my brother up in Lebanon and spoke to him a bit, even when we ran out of things to talk about I tried to stay on the phone as long as I could since it felt great using it. After I was done with my brother I tried to find someone else to call just so I could use the phone again. I really love it.

In conclusion, I would definitely recommend this phone. It looks great, the sound quality is great and the phone feels much more expensive then it actually costs. Its integration with the Mac and PC makes it really easy to work and use which makes it very user friendly. The only downside I could think of is that the USB cable is too long, 2.5 meters to be exact which I guess could be a good thing for some people but not if you are planning on using it with your laptop. Another downside is expect your Skype bill to go up because you really just want to call more because of it. I hated the headphone+mic combination, it just didn’t feel natural but since this looks like and feels like a phone I am more comfortable using it. The final score is a 4.5 out of 5.

Buy the white IPEVO phone from Amazon
Buy the black IPEVO phone from Amazon
Visit the IPEVO website